MAJOR builders and construction companies will vie for the lucrative contract to build Perth’s new children’s hospital at the QEII Medical Centre in February next year, after state cabinet approved the project’s $1.17 billion budget early this week.
The budget allocates $600 million for the construction of the new hospital building, and also includes funding for the purchase of land, furniture fittings and equipment, as well as design, architecture and consultancy costs.
The hospital, which will replace the existing Princess Margaret’s Hospital for Children, will be built under a two-stage ‘managing contractor’ model, similar to the ‘early contractor involvement’ model in place at the $2 billion Fiona Stanley Hospital, currently under construction in Murdoch.
Brookfield Multiplex announced in September that construction at the Fiona Stanley Hospital was on time and on budget, as the project entered its second year.
Unlike the Fiona Stanley Hospital works contract, however, the successful bidder for the new children’s hospital will subcontract to a state government-approved architectural services team who will be responsible for the building’s design.
Minister Assisting the Treasurer, Bill Marmion, said the managing contractor model would allow for an early start to building and add certainty to the project’s timetable.
Mr Marmion said expressions of interest for a builder would go out in February, with a preferred proponent announced within two months of that date.
Health Minister Kim Hames said the state government began seeking expressions of interest to build a multi-storey carpark at the site in June, which will be funded and operated under a public-private partnership.
“We have a very tight timetable for construction, and these timings are critical to allow us to have [the carpark] finished by the time we start the new children’s hospital,” Dr Hames said.
“It’s already going to be somewhat of a construction site, so we’ve got to make sure we get our timings perfect to make sure its started in 2012 and completed in 2015.”
