When finished, it will deliver the care people in the south need and deserve in the most up-to-date fashion anywhere in the country.
However, the journey to deliver a state-of-the-art hospital project is as complex as you’d expect any billion-dollar-plus project to be.
That’s why, as your local member of parliament, I follow its progress very closely.
Much has happened since I last reported on the build.
Pile-driving on the new hospital site has been replaced lately by an eerie silence. That won’t last long.
At the end of January the contractor for the big inpatients block moved on site, and much banging will soon get under way.
The old Cadbury’s concrete slab is being pierced and cleared as the ground is prepared for the second and larger pile-driving season.
Meanwhile, on the northern side of St Andrew St, the so-called groundworks for the outpatients building are gathering pace.
The piles are driven, the rest of the foundations are being completed and the electricity cabling, water pipes and other services are being laid. This will take several months to finish.
Then, maybe around June, the outpatients building will "come out of the ground". This will happen quite quickly, much like framing in a new house.
Large steel columns will rise to the full height of the building, a pair at a time.
At that point we will see what the outpatients building of our new hospital will look like.
The main contractor for the outpatients building is Southbase, which is just finishing Te Rangi Hiroa, the new university hall of residence in Albany St.
It has its HQ in what used to be the Lighting Direct building, just north of the outpatients building site.
Next door is Workforce Central Dunedin, our homegrown skills hub.
Building New Zealand’s most expensive vertical infrastructure project to date in a smallish city like Dunedin requires special attention to skills development.
The new hospital is a rare opportunity to increase our construction skills, engage women in construction, reduce our prison recidivism rate or our youth unemployment rate, grow new Maori and Pasifika enterprises and more.
That’s the work of Workforce Central Dunedin and it is under way, in partnership with Southbase.
Just before Christmas the Government increased the hospital budget from $1.47 billion to $1.58 billion, and also decided on savings of a further $90 million, which were promptly labelled as "cuts".
Further explanation is called for. I will use the surgical theatres as a readily understood case in point.
In the December decision, the number of surgical theatres was reduced from 28 in the original business case to 26. Of these 18, rather than the original 20, are general operating theatres, of which 15 will be open on day one and a further three shelled until needed.
Savings will accrue accordingly.
But looking more closely, the existing hospital has 12 such theatres, so 15, then later 18, represents a sizeable increase.
Moreover, the existing facilities have inadequate preparation and recovery facilities, which causes log jams, and they also leak and have asbestos in the ceilings.
The new hospital’s 18 new theatres are each 55sq m in area, enough to accommodate lots of bulky equipment, and to meet Australasian standards.
They are supported by ample rooms for preparation and recovery.
The original modelling that suggested 20, not 18, was the right number for the next 50 years or so was based on an eight-hour surgical day.
Many hospitals in NZ are now moving to 10-hour surgical days, so the model is becoming outdated.
This whole process is known in the trade as "value engineering" and is part and parcel of any large project.
It is how we as a nation maintain value for taxpayer money.
We probably have more construction cost increases to absorb, so the value for money lens will be ever present.
