Tetra Tech acted as mechanical and electrical (M&E) designer on a combined paediatric cardiac catheterisation laboratory and orthopaedic theatre, marking a landmark health facility on the island of Ireland.
Tetra Tech’s Building Services team was appointed by Clancy Construction as Contractor’s Designer for the construction of the new Hybrid Cardiac Catheterisation Laboratory at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital in Crumlin, Dublin.
The Cardiac Catheterisation Unit and Orthopaedic Theatre at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital Crumlin (OLCHC) is the only fully equipped paediatric cardiology service on the island of Ireland to diagnose and treat children with heart defects.
The project was awarded an ACEI Design Excellence Award in 2017, Health Project of the Year and the overall prize Construction Project of the Year at the 2016 Irish Construction Industry Awards.
Challenge
Our challenge was to help deliver a best-in-class Cardiac Catheterisation Unit and Orthopaedic Theatre for Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital Crumlin.
The national importance of the project combined with the highly complex spatial limitations created an opportunity for innovative solutions and creative thinking.
Solution
This design-build project was delivered on time and within budget through the use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) by an interdisciplinary project team with Tetra Tech serving as Mechanical and Electrical Consulting Engineer.
The M&E design was carried out in a Federated BIM Level 2 model. The project consisted of a three-storey development with an undercroft area for car parking, a hybrid catheterisation lab and orthopaedic theatre including an ultra-clean ventilation system and all ancillary spaces. The third floor was designed as an internal plantroom containing all the plant items necessary to serve the building. Both the lab and the orthopaedic theatre were designed to be served by individual air handling units complete with HEPA filtration and heat recovery to provide ultra clean air and energy efficiency for areas with high air change rates. All life critical electrical systems are backed up with Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) and Interruptible Power Supply (IPS) systems as required for medically used rooms.
A link bridge was constructed to link the new facility with the existing theatre block. Careful planning was required to achieve the tie-ins to the existing services to ensure any down time to life critical systems was minimised. Backup systems were put in place to ensure continuity of service in critical care areas at all times during construction.
At a glance
Client
Clancy Construction
Location
Dublin, Ireland
Services
Building information modelling level 2 (BIM), energy efficient LED lighting and lighting controls, full air conditioning systems, full AV system, heat recovery, isolated power and UPS systems, mechanical and electrical building services, medical gas installation, orthopaedic theatre including ultra clean ventilation system, thermal and energy modelling
The project featured in this article was undertaken by RPS, A Tetra Tech Company and originally published on RPSgroup.com. In March 2026 RPS rebranded to Tetra Tech.