Work on Wollongong Hospital's $27.8 million car park expansion will begin within weeks after a Sydney construction company was announced as the winning tenderer on Monday.
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More than 270 full-time jobs are expected to be created during construction of the car park, which is set to be finished mid to late 2015 to coincide with the completion of the $106 million hospital expansion.
The new parking complex will provide more than 700 additional car spaces in a multi-storey facility next to the existing car park on New Dapto Road.
That will bring the total number of car spaces at the hospital to 1274, and the car park will connect to the hospital via the existing pedestrian bridge.
NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner announced on Monday that Health Infrastructure had awarded the main works contract for the car park to Northbridge-based AW Edwards.
The construction and fitout business has been involved in a range of health and transport projects across the state.
These include the Children's Hospital Medical Centre at Westmead; St Vincents Research and Biotechnology Precinct, Darlinghurst; Campbelltown Private Hospital and Port Macquarie Ambulance Station.
The company has also constructed the Taronga Zoo entry precinct and car park, Nepean Hospital car park; four three-level car parks for RailCorp at different Sydney locations and underground stations for the new Chatswood to Epping line.
Ms Skinner said car parking was one of the biggest issues in the health portfolio, and more than $100 million was being invested to increase car spaces at hospitals across the state.
"Extensive planning and design works are now complete [for the Wollongong car park expansion] and the finalisation of the tender process means construction will commence shortly," Ms Skinner said.
Minister for the Illawarra John Ajaka said the project would provide more parking than originally planned and, importantly, more jobs.
"The Wollongong car park project is expected to support an estimated 270 full-time equivalent direct and indirect jobs over the life of the project," he said.
"The head contractor AW Edwards will be engaging with subcontractors to tender on the project, including those from the Illawarra region."
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