Making way for new ZithaKlinik

(CS) In the middle of a residential neighbourhood in Luxembourg City, demolition work has been ongoing since mid-April, with a plot of land now almost ready for excavation as work progresses on the new ZithaKlinik.

The Zitha hospital will grow through the addition of a new wing with the state paying around 62 million euros on the project.

The new building will offer an X-ray and endoscopic unit, operating rooms, two care units, an outpatient clinic and dialysis facilities.

The aim is to expand and modernise the clinic, which is located in the City centre near the “Rousegäertchen”. 

Following extensive demolition work, the site can now be excavated, with diggers going to a depth of eight metres below surface, making room for underground parking.

Only then can actual construction begin.

Contractors have been using water hoses to try and keep accumulation of dust to a minimum. Additionally buildings have not been knocked down with a wrecking ball but torn down floor by floor.

So far there have been no complaints about the construction site, contractors said.

Over the next five years the addition to the ZithaKlinik will be built, designed by architecture office Jim Clemens.

“We want an improvement for patients, as well as a modernisation of infrastructure,” said Dr Paul Wirtgen, director general of the Hôpitaux Robert Schumann group, which also manages Clinique Bohler, Clinique Saint-Marie and Hôpital Kirchberg.

In line with the infrastructure changes, the hospital group is also foreseeing organisational changes, Dr Wirtgen commented. “We want to put together what belongs together,” he said, adding that more details would be revealed this autumn.

However, it is already planned that from the start of next year, emergency services will be concentrated at the hospital in Kirchberg.

Reporting by Nadine Schartz