A £16million deal to build the third phase of Edgware's new community hospital has finally gone out to tender after an eight-month delay.
Six companies are vying for the deal and are expected to return first-stage tenders to Barnet Primary Care Trust on December 17.
The complete development of the hospital, which should be finished by 2004, is costing £25million.
The winning bidder will be responsible for 12,000sq m of new building work and a further 5,000sq m of refurbishment of the existing hospital.
It will include outpatients, a children's centre, acute and intermediary care wards and an elderly mental health unit.
One of the developers, Bouygues, will be one step ahead of the pack after working on earlier phases of the development.
A shortlist of bidders was expected to be compiled by March this year but an advertisement had to be ditched after the price of design work was underestimated.
Work should have started five months ago but is now expected to begin next spring at the earliest.
December 5, 2001 17:33
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