Underground infrastructure works for Laakso Joint Hospital are nearing completion

The underground infrastructure works for Laakso Joint Hospital project are nearing completion. A completely new infrastructure now runs beneath central Helsinki, which will serve Laakso Hospital area from spring 2027 onwards. Structural, geotechnical and rock engineering design has been carried out by the UNITAS consortium, formed by AFRY and AINS Group.

An integral part of the Laakso Joint Hospital construction project, an extensive underground world is nearing completion. On two underground levels there will be a pick-up and drop-off for clients and ambulances, elevators to all the hospital wards in the new buildings, maintenance yard and other logistics facilities in the lower underground space as well as 550 parking spaces for customers and staff. The underground facilities will be taken into use at the same time as the northern part of the main building, in spring 2027.

The infrastructure construction works for the Laakso Joint Hospital project began in December 2022. Three and a half years later, the most significant concrete casting works are nearing completion in the underground facilities. In the underground parking facility, prestressed vaults, ground-supported floor slabs and shafts connecting the underground facilities to the above-ground hospital buildings have been cast.

– The world is changing, and the new hospital facilities need to keep pace with that change. In Laakso hospital area, we are building infrastructure and hospital facilities that are adaptable. This means that in the coming years, new technological solutions – especially automation and robotics – can be introduced flexibly in Laakso. The hospital will be able to live and adapt as the needs change. This has placed significant demands also on the design of the underground facilities and on infrastructure construction, states Marko Heino, CEO of Real Estate Limited Company Laakso Joint Hospital.

Technical innovation made it possible to keep to schedule

Underground construction in a dense urban environment has required exceptional solutions. One of the major innovations is a grillage beam structure, which was used to streamline the phases of construction and achieve schedule savings.

The beam structure enabled the construction work on the main building to begin while the underground excavation work was still under way. When work on the main building began, the rock shaft had already been excavated, but the partition walls between the elevator and technical shafts had not yet been built.

– It’s a grate-like concrete structure that functions as a transfer beam system, which was cast on top of the bedrock to form the foundation for the main building’s shafts. Thanks to this structure, the underground section supporting the elevator shafts’ guides and installations could be built afterwards as a steel structure instead of reinforced concrete, says Harri Kuula, Market Area Manager at AFRY Finland Oy.

Millions of years old rock formations revealed

The excavation work for the Laakso Joint Hospital project was preceded by extensive rock quality surveys, which assessed the properties of the over a billion-year-old bedrock as input data for design.

– From a rock construction perspective, the rock quality in the area has been excellent and this has enabled flexible space planning. For geologists and rock engineering designers, rock construction projects are always a great opportunity to see the folds and veins of the Svecofennian mountain belt, formed billions of years ago, says Paula Pohjanperä, Design Director at AINS Group.

Geotechnical and rock engineering design will continue in early 2027, when the implementation phase of the northern new building begins in Laakso. In addition to the main building, the northern new building is the second of the new hospital buildings being built in the Laakso hospital area. In addition to these, two existing historical hospital buildings will be renovated during 2028–2030.

For more information

Anna Tainio, Communications Manager, Real Estate Limited Company Laakso Joint Hospital, +358 40 841 3600, ext‑[email protected]