Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB) is celebrating after collecting a top construction award at a prestigious ceremony.

The hospital, together with Balfour Beatty Construction, gained success in the West Midlands Constructing Excellence Awards 2011 for the second phase of the QEHB project.

And there to receive their prize at the International Convention Centre, Birmingham, was Balfour Beatty's project director Roger Frost, and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust's (UHB) Head of Technical Services, Ray Shillam.

The competition, organised by the West Midlands Centre for Constructing Excellence (WMCCE), is aimed at the region’s leading construction projects and companies.

QEHB was competing in the highly prized Project of the Year Award 2011 – one of nine categories up for grabs.

In the end, the judges were so impressed by the shortlisted finalists that they chose two winners, with the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon also being recognised for its refurbishment scheme.

A spokesman for the judges said both entries represented a “substantial legacy” for the region, and both could easily have won outright in any other year.

They described Birmingham’s first new acute hospital for 70 years as a world-class teaching, training and research facility, and praised the Balfour Beatty team for completing the project on time, within budget and with an outstanding safety record.

For more information about the awards, visit the West Midlands Centre for Constructing Excellence website.