Interserve to build proton beam facility

Support services and construction group Interserve has won a contract with the Christie NHS Foundation Trust to design, construct and co-ordinate the development of a major radiotherapy facility in Manchester.

Subject to planning approval, construction work is expected to start on site in 2016, completing in 2018. The project team includes HKS Architects, Arup Engineers and Gleeds as cost consultants. The value of the contract was not disclosed.

Christie's was awarded part of a £250m fund established by the Department of Health in April 2012 to develop proton beam therapy services in London and Manchester.

Proton beam therapy is a specialist form of radiotherapy which can precisely target certain cancers, increasing success rates and reducing side-effects.

Ian Renhard, managing director of Interserve Construction, said: "The team's knowledge, experience, innovation and expertise, together with their dogged enthusiasm to learn so much about proton beam therapy, demonstrated through its field research abroad, has contributed greatly to us winning this contract."