In 2021, the board of administration governing the Centre Hospitalier Emile Mayrisch (CHEM) decided to terminate a contract with Vienna-based architect Albert Wimmer. Officials at the time justified the decision by alleging a disrespect of deadlines, withholding of information, and general absence from the planned building site.
A new tender offer was thus launched, and, according to CHEM director general Dr René Metz, the new contract partners are giving rise to optimism: “We are immensely happy that we have now made concrete progress, because we were able to sign with a major European planner in recent weeks, SWECO, which is present in other European countries and has already built major hospitals. And I really think that matters will now progress.”
‘The hospital of tomorrow. Of the people and for the people’, is the motto of the new south hospital. At present, it however remains unclear when exactly the buildings will be ready, admits Dr Metz: “I think it will take six or seven years to build. It will probably be next year when we start construction and then we will be able to assess the timeline.”
Once completed, the hospital should be able to accommodate up to 600 patient beds.
The initial design put forward by Albert Wimmer will be implemented in mostly unchanged manner. Nevertheless, discussions with the new construction leaders still need to be held on how to adjust the plans to more novel aspects, such as new energy concepts, for instance.
What is expected to change, however, are the costs for the new hospital. As things stand, the planned budget of €50 million will likely be insufficient.
The site for the new hospital is located in Esch-sur-Alzette, across from the National Centre for Continuous Vocational Training (CNFPC) and next to Belval. 30,000–40,000 cubic metres of soil have already been dug up and from above, the layout of the future buildings can in fact be identified.
What will happen to the current Esch hospital remains unclear. According to Dr Metz, the Niederkorn and Dudelange sites will continue being used, but likely transformed to suit specific tasks.
