Aerial view of the new Royal Adelaide construction site
Picture: Chris Mangan, Adelaide Now, January 14
The visionary new Royal Adelaide Hospital, designed to set an unparalleled standard of excellence in medical facility and care for South Australian public patients, is already becoming an imposing structure in the north-west corner of the Adelaide CBD. Progress over twenty month is impressive.
Site preparation has entailed clean-up of derelict railway shunting yards, excavation and removal of vast amounts of contaminated soil, replacement of underlying city sewer pipes, the laying of a huge network of pipes and cables for water, power, and telecommunications, and the sinking of massive concrete piers for the foundations.
State Treasurer John (Jack) Snelling’s headache over the debt grows with the hospital. The current debt of $5.1 billion will increase to $9.7 billion or 95% of state income in 2015. The interest will be about $750 million (4.5% of income). Re-payments of $397 million per annum for 30 years to a total of $11.91 billion start in 2016.
