NLSH records new hospital construction in 350th drone photo

Mbl.is reports that the New Landspítali project has taken its 350th drone photograph, documenting construction at the new national hospital site in Reykjavík. The image, taken this week, shows the scale of work carried out over the past eight years.

Regular aerial photography has been part of the project since construction began at Hringbraut and Grensás. The images help document the building work and provide an overview of progress, with photographs taken weekly when weather and light allow.

Einar Haukur Reynis, NLSH’s information technology director, operates the drone. The archive now contains thousands of photographs, organised by grid and viewpoint. Selected overview images are published on the project’s website, and videos are available to the public on NLSH’s YouTube channel.

NLSH has permission from Isavia to fly drones near Reykjavík Airport, and the project works closely with the airport’s control tower.

The latest image shows four buildings under construction. The largest, the green building beside the old Landspítali, is the hospital’s treatment centre. A parking and technical building near BSÍ has spaces for 522 cars and 200 bicycles and is due to open in the coming days. The research building will bring the hospital’s research activities together, while a new building for the University of Iceland’s Faculty of Health Sciences will be used to teach students in health-related subjects.

The first shovel was turned at the new national hospital site on 13 October 2018. Under the construction schedule, the hospital and research building are due to be completed in the second half of 2029 and begin operating in 2030.