ETZ builds hospital of the future in phases

Healthcare is going through an enormous transition. The Elisabeth-TweeSteden Hospital (ETZ) has already invested a great deal in the ETZ Elisabeth location in Tilburg over the past decades, but with a view to the future, it is adding to this. Indeed, a completely new hospital will be built at this location no later than 2050. After the summer vacations this year, the Hurks - ULC Installatietechniek construction consortium will start building an acute center and a new clinic building. Together with the ETZ real estate department, we take a look at the plans and discuss the main challenges and milestones already achieved.

Location ETZ Elisabeth on the Hilvarenbeekseweg in Tilburg will be completely redeveloped over the next 20 to 30 years, which involves the demolition of the current buildings. This will take place in phases. When the first phase is completed in 2027, all emergency and clinical care will be provided from this location. The current building dates from 1982 and is not suitable to continue providing adequate care in the future. Nevertheless, the building still has book value and can technically last for several more years. This fact, combined with the fact that healthcare is changing considerably, means that the ETZ is taking a phased approach to the replacement building. The plans are part of the Healthcare Master Plan, a comprehensive, modular and flexible master plan that extends beyond the ETZ itself. The surrounding organizations, such as Libra Rehabilitation & Audiology, Education Center Leijpark, De Wever and the regional ambulance transport also fall within this same zoning plan area.

The first phase of the new building involves a total area of approximately 35,000 square meters and, in addition to the first tower clinic, includes several essential facilities, including an acute center for emergency care and a general practitioner emergency room, emergency plaza, operating rooms, intensive care, interventional rooms for cardiology and radiology and connecting corridors that connect to the existing hospital. "Over the past period, we have achieved a number of important milestones," says Wessel Griffioen, Construction Director/Manager Real Estate & New Construction at Elisabeth-TweeSteden Hospital. "For example, based on a completed final design, we have put this first phase out to tender in 2023, financing has been arranged through a loan from the European Investment Bank and the Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten, and the necessary land transactions have taken place with surrounding organizations. Think of it as a kind of land consolidation to help each other build and expand. For example, Education Center Leijpark has already started building a new school building on part of our visitor parking lot and we may eventually take over the old location of the education center."

After an extensive selection procedure, in which not only price but also design optimizations, improvement proposals and risk analyses were important weighing factors, the project was awarded to the Hurks - ULC Installatietechniek combination in April 2024. "We are now working hard with the implementation consortium, the architect, the technical consultants and the landscape architect to finalize the technical design so that we can start construction after the summer," says Marc Koster, real estate program manager at Elisabeth-TweeSteden Hospital. "In parallel, the site is now being cleared and prepared for construction where necessary. To create more space for construction, a new parking policy has been introduced. Employees living within a 10 kilometer radius are no longer allowed to park on the site and are requested to park at a distance or come by another means of transportation. In this way, there is sufficient parking for visitors and for employees on evening and night shifts."

With the new building, ETZ is concentrating acute and clinical care in the region. To manage the building program, Griffioen says three pillars have been defined. "The first is realizing the new building, but at the same time shifting functions within the existing building. A number of functions from other locations will soon move to ETZ Elisabeth. The second pillar focuses on cooperation. Processes will be organized differently, there will be new systems and equipment, and there will be new functions. Our staff will soon work differently in the new environment and collaborate with other parties. We did not yet have a GP post or an emergency room at this location. Finally, the third pillar involves furnishing, moving in and moving out. Here, too, you can't start early enough, so that the new environment is ready for use as soon as possible. All three pillars together will lead to commissioning in the first half of 2027. By the way, completion is scheduled for November 2026."

It is far from that yet. After all, construction has yet to begin. Yet a number of milestones have already been reached. "We are dealing with a complex environment here, building new in the middle of the flood plain of the Nieuwe Leij, the current park," Koster explains. "The stream flows from the A58 to the Wilhelmina Canal and crosses our site. Initially, from the master plan, we looked at whether we could divert the stream, but this was abandoned because of the risk of contaminated soil. That would make the task even more complex. After intensive consultation with water board De Dommel and the municipality of Tilburg, it was decided to compensate for some of the storage capacity of the flood plain by re-profiling the banks of the Nieuwe Leij." 

Speaking of water, the new building will jeopardize the collection of rainwater on its own property. In cooperation with the municipality, the ETZ has found a temporary solution for the retention basin in the adjacent park. Koster: "When eventually, in 20 to 30 years, the new hospital is realized, there will be a free zone in the middle with wadis where the rainwater can be collected. In that final picture there will also be three bridges over the Nieuwe Leij, designed in such a way that certain target species can more easily migrate with the current under the bridges. After all, the Nieuwe Leij is an ecological connecting zone between two Natura2000 areas." In short, the new ETZ Elisabeth has an eye for both people and nature.