An electricity substation on the site of Dunedin's new hospital needs to be relocated, a process expected to cost $15 million and take three years.
That might mean it would not be off the site until after hospital construction is due to start in 2020.
The plan has been delayed for several weeks, but once it was finished the group would know how much pressure it would put on owner Aurora Energy to move more quickly.
''We've known from the outset that substation would be a difficult site,'' Mr Hodgson said.
Aurora is already looking for land nearby to relocate the North City zone substation that supplies 1400 businesses and homes in the area, including Dunedin Hospital and the University of Otago.
The Ministry of Health is helping in that search, although Aurora can fall back on the Public Works Act if it needs to.
The substation sits in the middle of one of two blocks to be used for the new hospital, on a property owned by Aurora that sits between Cumberland and Castle Sts.
Asked how the process of moving was going, an Aurora spokesman said the company was working with the hospital development team on options to relocate the substation.
The Aurora spokesman said the substation would need to remain in service until the new one was fully operational.
The facility took high voltage electricity from the South Dunedin grid exit point and converts it to lower voltage.
The new site would need to be within a few blocks of the existing substation, as it needed to remain close to the customers it supplied.
Relocation would involve finding a suitable alternative site, obtaining building and resource consents, acquiring land, and designing and building the required infrastructure.
That would include the new substation, the incoming connection from the subtransmission network and outgoing connections to feeders.
The process could take up to three years.
The cost was yet to be determined and would depend on the site, the route for underground cables and whether additional load capacity was required for the new hospital.
''As an indicative estimate, full relocation to a nearby site is likely to be in the order of $10 million to $15 million.''
The spokesman said Aurora Energy was entitled to compensation under the Public Works Act for the value of the land and costs of relocating the substation.
Mr Hodgson said the cost of the shift was budgeted for.
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Comments
This is turning into another DCC joke, all this should have been investigated prior to the decision being made to put the new Hospital there. It shows that the so-called high rollers, the shakers and movers making these decisions and influncing the decision have not got a clue, and are bent on getting what they want at no matter what cost it is to tax or rate payers, yep Cull you are in that group. Lets see how professional they really are and lest see if they have Dunedin well being at heart. Lets see them take a step back, halt all progress and really review if putting the new Hospital on that block of land is really worth it. Move it, sure they have purchased Cadburys but lets see this become a park like area with a couple of cafes and areas for people to sit and enjoy the Dunedin Rain and cold. - yet again the so called authorities appeared to have not done a full cost analysis of it and I bet you there will be more if they carry on using this site. Cull a true leader steps up and acknowledges he was wrong, takes a check pace, gather's his thoughts, composure and carries on like a true leader. then rips in to the staff. We have not yet seen or heard of you do this- weak.
Once again your anti-DCC tirade has no foundation in fact.
Firstly, this has nothing to do with the DCC (other than the the fact that a council-owned company owns the land where the substation is).
Secondly, Mayor Cull or anyone else at the DCC had nothing to do with the decision to locate the hospital where it will be.
Thirdly, the steering group in charge (not the DCC in case you are still a bit confused), state in the story that the substation relocation requirement was known about at the outset (that means at the start, again in case you're a bit confused).
Frankly, your ramblings are becoming more and more incomprehensible. Get help.
Not anti DCC I'm sure there are great people working there, but the so called leaders are letting the side down IMHO the DCC does not have a great track record. stolen cars lack of maintenance, sweeping things under the mat.
Did Cull and Pope ( the so called high rollers) or call it the DCC if you wish not have a campaign to get the hospital there which used rate payers coin for that campaign. Surely they had pull in the decision - if they had no pull yet again wasted rate payers coin in that campaign and would have known they were wasting the money . Sure the article says this was budgeted so why even have the article, the 15 Million would be better spent on other things. In todays world climate it is not great having a hospital, the cities major fire station and Central police station with in blocks of each other.
Frankly Dunners you possibly have not traveled much or lived else where in the world and experienced how a city can be run and managed better, I guess I'm more fortunate in that respects.
Dunners forgot to add some of the stuff the so called professionals are asking from within the DCC is pathetic and either shows they are out of there depth or want buy in from the public as a token gesture, example 'Submissions sought on proposed speed limit changes' around schools not only for school times they want to reduce the speed limit full time -pathetic. Follow a test and proven method that other world leading councils do, and that is flashing lights on a speed limit when in force twice a day for a period 5 days a week, it must be controlled centrally because it doesn't happen during weekends, public holidays and school holidays, so you wonder why people get annoyed with the lack of accountability and always trying to re invent the wheel.
if people don't ramble like you say the so called leaders think they are awesome and doing a great job, they need to be held accountable and questioned.
Rtn2Dun- The new hospital is a government project, not DCC.
DCC campaigned to have in central Dunedin rather than rural/suburban Dunedin (at the top of a hill) and because we, the people, wanted it here and topography dictated.
If you want international evidence, look to London moving Charing Cross hospital to North London when Charing Cross, Strand, Trafalgar Square and Shaftesbury Ave all carry a high density of people 24/7. Traffic congestion delays patient getting to North London.
Princess Margaret Hospital in an outer suburb of Christchurch contained a Coronary Care Unit when most of the population 24/7 were working/living in the CBD. Delay in transferring patients costs lives. The first hour is important.
One wonders why some Rtn2Dun if they dislike it so much.