MoH agrees to raft of conditions
THE Ministry of Health has agreed to a range of proposed conditions, including extensive monitoring of any traffic and vibration issues, as it seeks fasttrack building consent for the new Dunedin Hospital outpatient building.
After it invited several affected parties for comment, the independent panel assessing whether the first stage of the $1.47 billion project is to go ahead has now issued a draft set of consent conditions for further discussion.
The document shows the ministry has taken on board requests from a range of organisations to consider the impact the hospital would have on inner city traffic — both during construction and once it was open to treat patients — and also how much vibration from construction work would affect neighbouring properties.
The ministry has agreed to a detailed design safety audit of onsite parking, accessways, and vehicle crossings to the wider transport network being conducted as a condition for consent, and that it would consult with emergency service providers and the Otago Regional Council.
Heritage New Zealand had expressed concern that the historic fire station on the corner of Castle and St Andrew Sts could suffer adverse effects on its structural integrity and heritage value because of the construction work, and during the successful consent application for the project’s groundworks and foundations Fire and Emergency New Zealand had raised similar issues.
The document showed that the ministry had agreed to ensure that the facades and streetscaping for the inpatient building would be ‘‘sympathetic to the heritage values of the Dunedin Fire Station’’.
It also agreed that the traffic management plan for the building would include measures to ensure that there was no disruption to the needs of Fenz to use the fire station for emergency responses.
The ministry also accepted a more stringent set of requirements regarding guideline limits for vibrations, which included contacting nearby building owners to carry out a preconstruction condition survey of their property, and notifying building owners if it was expected that vibrations could exceed the limits allowed by the consent.
The panel itself inserted a proposed clause which would require that the outpatient building be built at a specified height to mitigate flood risk.
An independent review commissioned earlier by the panel recommended that an emergency plan should be drawn up to manage flooding near the outpatient building.
The ministry has already analysed likely flood peaks and intends to site the ground floor level of the building between 1.8m and 2m above the existing surrounding streets.
The deadline for invited parties to comment on the consent application is 5pm today.