‘On track’: SA Govt insists new Women’s and Children’s reaching milestones
“Not since The Castle’s Dale Kerrigan has anyone got so much credit for digging a hole.” Opposition unimpressed by new stage reached in state’s new $3.2 billion hospital build.
Acting Premier Kyam Maher and Health Minister Blair Boyer say the New Women’s and Children’s Hospital build is on track, with more than 250 concrete piles beginning to prop up the main hospital building.
The latest milestone in the build would see 287 concrete piles installed at the North Terrace site over the next three months, supporting the columns of the new clinical building and setting the foundation for the large-scale development.
Both Maher and Boyer were clear in saying the building – that attracted controversy over the heritage-listed Thebarton police barracks being knocked down in the Adelaide Park Lands so it could be built – was on track to be finished by 2031.
“It’s incredibly exciting to see this project continue to progress on schedule and with momentum, now moving from the early design phase into enabling works construction. Today, this site is a hive of construction activity,” Maher said.
But state Opposition leader Ashton Hurn has previously said she was not convinced the project would be completed by its deadline of 2031.
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Shadow Health Minister Jack Batty said the project looked like it would “blow its budget” and timeline for completion.
“It’s been nearly 13 years since Labor first promised a new Women’s and Children’s Hospital, and today we’ve got no final designs, no final costings and frankly nearly no progress at the site,” Batty said.
“Health Minister Blair Boyer wants to talk up a major milestone but there seems to have been next to no actual work done while taxpayers foot the bill for expensive equipment that’s sitting idle.
“All we are seeing is a crane without a cause and a massive rig that is yet to dig. Not since The Castle’s Dale Kerrigan has anyone got so much credit for digging a hole.”
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With a price tag of $3.2 billion, the building is now rising on a plot of Adelaide park lands adjacent to the new Royal Adelaide Hospital that was once home to the heritage-listed Thebarton Police Barracks.
Project Director Corey McDonald previously told InDaily supply chain problems were a “big” challenge for the complex build.
To enable the installation of the new concrete piles – which measure between 16 and 31 metres in length – two specialist piling rigs have been brought on site, along with a team of engineers, operators and experts.
The new works begin as construction continues to rapidly progress on the 1300-space hospital car park. With the roof now complete, the installation of more than 1,700 façade panels is expected to be finalised shortly.
Alongside the works on site, significant progress also continues on the schematic design development phase of the project, reaching over 90 per cent completion.
The key design process sets out the internal layout of the hospital, allowing for preliminary floor plans to be produced.
Consumer and staff feedback has been an integral part of the schematic design process, ensuring the new hospital is shaped around the needs of the people who will use it every day.
Maher said 1500 individual Women’s and Children’s Health Network clinical and non-clinical staff have provided vital feedback, along with 68 patients and family members.
Once complete, the New Women’s and Children’s Hospital would include 414 overnight beds – an additional 56 compared to the current hospital – and further capacity to add an extra 20 beds in the future.
It would also include an additional five operating theatres, 18 oncology overnight beds, doubling the current hospital’s capacity, and five additional neonatal cots.
The new site will also feature a larger Emergency Department, as well as the Intensive Care Unit for women co-located with the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit.
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