Christchurch firm Novogroup has drafted an integrated transport assessment of the project, a document included in the Dunedin City Council response to a request for it to comment on the Ministry of Health’s application for fast-track consent.
Its report was on the next stage of the project, the six-storey outpatient building to the north of the central city site.
Novogroup identified compliance issues in relation to existing DCC plans and recommended that consent conditions be imposed, the DCC comment said.
The council expressed concerns including the adequacy of plans for deliveries to the site, the risk that incoming vehicles could give way to outgoing vehicles and block the footpath, cycleways and state highway traffic, and that warnings should be in place to remind truck drivers that cyclists could be in their blind spot.
However, Novogroup raised wider concerns that its assessment only covered the outpatient building.
"An inpatient building and additional new hospital facilities are intended within the land owned by the Ministry of Health ... we have concerns that an assessment of cumulative network effects of the development on the wider new Dunedin site (beyond what is seeking to be consented here) has not been undertaken."
There were no guarantees the nine-storey inpatient block, the logistics centre and other hospital buildings would be consented, or if so what form they would take, Novogroup’s report said.
However, consenting for the outpatient building, including traffic management, was being considered despite the fact those future buildings would affect traffic flows.
The ministry chose to apply for separate consents in a bid to accelerate the project, but the independent panel ruling on its application has previously questioned if that approach was wise given it was not a foregone conclusion all consents would be granted as applied for.
The DCC sought a range of consent conditions, including a detailed design safety audit of car parks, accessways and vehicle accesses to the wider traffic network, and a post-implementation safety audit.
Meanwhile, the operators of one of the busiest New World in New Zealand have repeated concerns raised during the initial consent process for the new hospital that both its construction and operation could cause severe disruption to its business.
Foodstuffs acknowledged the economic and social benefits the hospital would provide.
However, under the proposed consent conditions for the outpatient building, there would likely be disturbance from noise and vibrations at its New World supermarket, the Centre City Mall and Henry’s Liquor Store, Foodstuffs South Island property development manager Rebecca Parish said.
The firm also had concerns about access and parking, flood risk and the management plans for construction, she said.
"The proposal lacks detail of its impact on Foodstuffs’ properties and its businesses.
"This creates uncertainty that adverse effects will be mitigated and minimised to the extent practicable."
The firm was concerned that details of how the effect of construction would be managed were not specified, and that management plans for the build had not allowed Foodstuffs to have a say about the implications for its business and people.
Foodstuffs sought a peer review by an "appropriately qualified acoustic expert" of the potential impact of noise and vibration on its properties, and consideration of the effect construction would have on parking and access for its 150-200 staff.
It also queried traffic management plans as it appeared street access to the outpatient building would be opposite that to the supermarket.
"Concluding that there is no increase in volume on the network generally because the outpatient building is moving from another inner city location, and the wider network will be upgraded, is not a sufficient assessment of the localised effects on Cumberland St."
