If you have driven along the Route d'Arlon recently, you will have noticed the vast construction site rising alongside it. The new Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg (CHL) building is currently one of the largest building projects in the country, with around 300 workers on site every day, nine companies operating in parallel, and four permanent cranes and one mobile crane working to bring the project to life.
CHL currently sees around 204,000 patients per year, equating to approximately 560 people passing through its doors on an average day. Three large new entrances will greet them when the building opens, with escalators connecting the ground floor to the upper levels, as Armin Weber, who coordinates the works, explained.
In a departure from standard practice, certain steps were agreed with the Health Ministry to accelerate the construction timeline. As explained by Weber, the escalators will connect the entrance to the upper floors. Most notably, cladding of the facade has already begun even though the upper floors are not yet complete. This allows the shell to be closed sooner, enabling the lower floors to be finished from the inside while work continues above. After the ground floor, the building will rise a full eight storeys, with three further levels underground, creating more than 400 additional parking spaces.
The fourth floor will house psychiatry and palliative care services, both of which will have access to a large terrace, something that is not available in the current building, noted medical director Dr Martine Goergen.
The original plan did not include an increase in bed numbers, with greater operational efficiency expected to reduce the length of hospital stays. However, given Luxembourg's continued population growth, the CHL subsequently applied for an additional 68 beds.
The children's clinic and maternity ward will not be integrated into the new building itself but will be connected to it via a walkway. Services currently based at the Eich site will be absorbed into the new building, while the Eich site itself will be repurposed, with sports medicine among the uses being considered.
The total cost of the project, adjusted for the index, exceeds €1 billion, excluding land. According to Paul Meyers, the CHL's administrative and financial director, the project remains within budget.
The shell of the main building is expected to be completed this year, with the major move into the new hospital planned for the end of 2029.
