Dubbo Hospital car parking spaces will be boosted to almost 1000 under a $30 million project which shifted gears on Friday.
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Member for the Dubbo electorate Dugald Saunders stood on an unused parcel of land on the western side of the hospital campus and announced Hansen Yuncken had won the contract to build two new and separate car parks.
Together they will increase the more than 600 existing car parking spaces at the hospital by about 380.
Work is scheduled to begin on the smaller of the two car parks on the south-eastern side of the hospital in a "few weeks". The four-month job may overlap with the start of construction of the second car park.
It's an undercover, three-storey and five-tiered facility, earmarked for the site chosen by Mr Saunders to make his announcement, and expected to be completed around Easter 2022.
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Staff will be encouraged to use the multi-storey car park but it will also be available to the public when attending the likes of the nearby Dubbo Western Cancer Centre, "on track" for completion in the middle of this year.
On Friday, Mr Saunders reiterated car parking at the hospital would remain free of charge and the multi-storey facility would be built in a way to ensure it could expand in years to come, if need be. "Importantly, this is future-proofed," he said. "If Dubbo grows and we need more we can tack another level on."
Importantly, this is future-proofed.
- Member for the Dubbo electorate Dugald Saunders
Trying to find a car parking space at Dubbo Hospital has been the cause of community complaints in the past.
On hand for Friday's announcement, hospital general manager Debbie Bickerton said car parking spaces delivered under its stage one, two, three and four redevelopment had "eased" the angst.
"But I think when we open up stage four and the cancer centre, it will push it too far again," she said. "It's most definitely very tight around the site.
"People are unhappy about it but I also think people know this is coming. The 380 new spaces delivered through this project will solve the problem."
Ms Bickerton says staff, currently having to park wherever they can and then move their cars closer to the hospital before they finish their shifts late at night, will benefit from having a designated car park.
"They will all go there at the end of the shift," she said. " It will be fantastic and safer."
Mr Saunders said Hansen Yuncken was one of three companies which made it onto a short list of potential builders of the $30 million car park project.
He said the criteria for being short-listed was "basically around capability of delivering the project".
"So that means capability in relation to workforce, readiness and delivery within a set timeframe," the MP said.
Sydney-based Hansen Yuncken has been working on Dubbo Hospital grounds for years, having successfully tendered for its $150 million stages three and four redevelopment.
Stage three involved the building of an inpatient surgical unit on the top of the now three-storey Talbragar Building.
The three-storey Macquarie Building has emerged under stage four redevelopment and like the cancer centre is set to be finished in mid-2021.
Hansen Yuncken site manager Chris Histon confirmed the project would kick off with the about 50-space car park near the hospital's new emergency department and soon-to-be main entrance in the Macquarie Building.
Mr Saunders said the car park project secured $10 million from a "special budget" in November 2020 and there would be "another top up" in the 2021 May budget.
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