[SWP] New Womens and Childrens Hospital

[Leigh744]

Will the government ever consider a western exit out of the railway station or even a new station right where that bridge connecting the hospital and carpark will be? Could easily replace the Mile End station and be much more utilised! Thoughts?

[rev]

Definitely will be. I can't imagine many planning disasters more worth of condemnation than a parking lot in the parklands, but in this case I honestly think it's fine.

This is undeniably the best spot for a new Women's and Children's hospital, and a facility like that needs close parking. It's also being built in an area that isn't any kind of natural space right now.

Sure it will butt up against the gaol, but while a historical landmark it is so for what it is much more than the location, with the emphasis also being on the inside rather than what is outside it's walls.

It's not 'fine''. Look at the fly through, the car park literally blocks both the view and access of the Gaol from West Terrace... Not to mention, this paints a picture for 20 years time when they need to make further hospital expansions; the train line is no boundary for this precinct...

They could expand by going up on those garden roof top areas, or just to the north of it. Might be possible to expand westward over the train lines and over the car park too?

[Listy]

FWIW, there's already a couple of great big ugly car parks in Bonython park just off Port Rd. (which are mostly filled by RAH staff anyway because they are free all day). The proposed location for the multistory park in the video is mostly just a big dirt car park for police and/or council staff.
A new multistory carpark nearby could allow these existing carparks to be eliminated or significantly reduced in size and the space returned to greenspace. A fair compromise I think.

[Nathan]

The large carpark in Bonython Park (the old netball courts, near the tram stop) are going regardless — that'll be the location of the moved City Beach.

Acquiring the Newmarket site and the surrounding block would have been a better location, with a connection to the nRAH either over or under North Tce.

[gnrc_louis]

The large carpark in Bonython Park (the old netball courts, near the tram stop) are going regardless — that'll be the location of the moved City Beach.

Acquiring the Newmarket site and the surrounding block would have been a better location, with a connection to the nRAH either over or under North Tce.

Agree. Doesn't look like the proposed developments on that whole block are happening any time soon, and the WCH being there would've added a nice level of density.

[rogue]

The new design for nWCH is much better and I think location is appropriate for the hospital and associated car park.

[Spotto]

The large carpark in Bonython Park (the old netball courts, near the tram stop) are going regardless — that'll be the location of the moved City Beach.

They're not seriously still going ahead with building a fake beach in the city are they?! Are we not a coastal-living city/country? Adelaide beaches are not that far away from the city either by car or public transport.

[Nathan]

They're not seriously still going ahead with building a fake beach in the city are they?! Are we not a coastal-living city/country? Adelaide beaches are not that far away from the city either by car or public transport.

City Beach = beach volleyball courts.

[NTRabbit]

And they have to build a staff car park, because as long as our public transport system is day only, night shift staff will have to drive to get to work there - and it needs to be nearby, well lit, and safe.

[Levesque]

This project has to be built in the area or adjacent to the new RAH. I work in the medical field and can tell you many staff that work at one hospital likely work at another. This shorter time could easily mean saving more lives (ie. Specialised trauma surgeons going between WCH and RAH, toxicologists, or other specialities doing the same thing) not to mention in the future this will increase the impetus for a bigger biotech centre here, with SAHMRI, CMAX, both universities etc already next door, the ability to cooperate for better health outcomes could make this corner of Adelaide not just a better place to conduct clinical trials, advanced medical procedures etc. But potentially make it Australia or the southern hemispheres premiere medical research area.

[Bob]

This project has to be built in the area or adjacent to the new RAH. I work in the medical field and can tell you many staff that work at one hospital likely work at another. This shorter time could easily mean saving more lives (ie. Specialised trauma surgeons going between WCH and RAH, toxicologists, or other specialities doing the same thing) not to mention in the future this will increase the impetus for a bigger biotech centre here, with SAHMRI, CMAX, both universities etc already next door, the ability to cooperate for better health outcomes could make this corner of Adelaide not just a better place to conduct clinical trials, advanced medical procedures etc. But potentially make it Australia or the southern hemispheres premiere medical research area.

They are significant points you raise - expanding on that thought process, why cant the area earmarked for the City Arena be reserved for future expansion of this bio-medical precinct instead? Future footbridges and/or covered rail yards can always connect the expanded area together. Maybe the entire area west of the Morphett Street bridge, apart from a river frontage reserved for parkland space, should be just that - a biomedical precinct?

[Levesque]

This project has to be built in the area or adjacent to the new RAH. I work in the medical field and can tell you many staff that work at one hospital likely work at another. This shorter time could easily mean saving more lives (ie. Specialised trauma surgeons going between WCH and RAH, toxicologists, or other specialities doing the same thing) not to mention in the future this will increase the impetus for a bigger biotech centre here, with SAHMRI, CMAX, both universities etc already next door, the ability to cooperate for better health outcomes could make this corner of Adelaide not just a better place to conduct clinical trials, advanced medical procedures etc. But potentially make it Australia or the southern hemispheres premiere medical research area.

They are significant points you raise - expanding on that thought process, why cant the area earmarked for the City Arena be reserved for future expansion of this bio-medical precinct instead? Future footbridges and/or covered rail yards can always connect the expanded area together. Maybe the entire area west of the Morphett Street bridge, apart from a river frontage reserved for parkland space, should be just that - a biomedical precinct?

This is quite literally something I think about almost every single day as I live near here on Morphett and work in the area. There is a lot of potential to make it a dense biomed precinct. For those that are worried about costs of covering the railyards, I would suggest cheaper park like coverings so that pedestrians forming a square over the area, with buildings flanking the rail. This would also be great for those staying/visiting the hospital and potentially shorten bike and pedestrian routes for those travelling from inner west to the city. There is still plenty of room for access roads on both sides so it's completely feasible in many regards.

[Patrick_27]

This project has to be built in the area or adjacent to the new RAH. I work in the medical field and can tell you many staff that work at one hospital likely work at another. This shorter time could easily mean saving more lives (ie. Specialised trauma surgeons going between WCH and RAH, toxicologists, or other specialities doing the same thing) not to mention in the future this will increase the impetus for a bigger biotech centre here, with SAHMRI, CMAX, both universities etc already next door, the ability to cooperate for better health outcomes could make this corner of Adelaide not just a better place to conduct clinical trials, advanced medical procedures etc. But potentially make it Australia or the southern hemispheres premiere medical research area.

They are significant points you raise - expanding on that thought process, why cant the area earmarked for the City Arena be reserved for future expansion of this bio-medical precinct instead? Future footbridges and/or covered rail yards can always connect the expanded area together. Maybe the entire area west of the Morphett Street bridge, apart from a river frontage reserved for parkland space, should be just that - a biomedical precinct?

This is quite literally something I think about almost every single day as I live near here on Morphett and work in the area. There is a lot of potential to make it a dense biomed precinct. For those that are worried about costs of covering the railyards, I would suggest cheaper park like coverings so that pedestrians forming a square over the area, with buildings flanking the rail. This would also be great for those staying/visiting the hospital and potentially shorten bike and pedestrian routes for those travelling from inner west to the city. There is still plenty of room for access roads on both sides so it's completely feasible in many regards.

Obviously without any background or expertise in medicine but simply an interest in town planning, I agree with your points from that side of things. Preferably that any hospital and/or medical precinct expansion go towards the river where the arena is being mooted rather than towards Bonython Park/Thebarton Police Barracks. After all the land we speak of is rail tracks that could be covered and gravel car parks and inaccessible grass space. I find it fascinating because ultimately the move from the east to west was about a clean slate rather than going through that repetitious cycle of upgrading one building, then the next, then the next, then back to the first building for another upgrade (which seemed to be the Libs alternate plan for the ORAH site those years ago) whereas this way it's almost about uniformity in terms of bringing things to be state of the art all at once and maintaining it at that level across the the entire facility; but that even in building this mammoth building the demand still exceeds it and the likelihood is in 30 years from now (or even less) we'll see a precinct of a similar size to the ORAH precinct develop in this part of the city so if it was the previous government and designers intention to make things more compact whilst still offering an expanded facility it would seem the former of those ideals will eventually go out the window.

[marbles]

i cant believe there is no train station at the hospital and sick people are made to go to ARS and then catch the tram back so stupid

[SBD]

i cant believe there is no train station at the hospital and sick people are made to go to ARS and then catch the tram back so stupid

How many sick people use public transport to go to hospital? Given the various promotions for saving a minute here and a minute there on public transport, how much is it worth to add a minute to every train trip into Adelaide station for an extra stop a few hundred metres earlier?

That's assuming there is actually space to add platforms between each pair of tracks in that area. There could be as the yards are smaller now, but some of that space is consumed by the buildings.