Offsite construction specialist, Merit, has completed a contract to expand a Lateral Flow Test manufacturing facility for Abingdon Health in York.
The project was delivered by Merit’s specialist healthcare division, Merit Health, and is part of significant expansion plans for Abingdon Health, a leader in the field of rapid diagnostic development and manufacture.
Designed and built using next-generation offsite construction techniques, the new facility was constructed with 39 pre-assembled modules, with 75% of the build manufactured offsite at Merit’s factory in Northumberland and then transported to York for assembly and installation.
The facility comprises highly-technical spaces including wet laboratories that require close temperature control, and dry room areas to a specification of 10% +/-5 relative humidity or less.
Tony Wells, managing director at Merit, said: “We manufactured a large part of the facility at the Merit factory, enabling Abingdon Health to continue its critical operations while we built the laboratory offsite.
“We achieved this by using our patent-pending Pre-Assembled Modules (PAMs) system, which was then transported to site for installation.
“As well as minimising disruption, our offsite construction techniques offer fast-track project delivery with improved quality, enhanced infection control, and zero carbon emissions in operation.”
Oliver Gardner, chief operations officer at Abingdon Health, added: “We initiated our expansion strategy in 2019 to better serve the growing demand for rapid testing, which has been accelerated across all sectors due the exposure of lateral flow technology during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The completion of this phase of expansion is critical for our plans going forward.”