Sunshine Coast University Hospital, Australia

Sunshine Coast University Hospital (SCUH) is AUD1.8 billion hospital project delivered by the Queensland Government as part of a Public Private Partnership (PPP) contract with Exemplar Health; a consortium comprising of Lendlease, Siemens and Capella Capital, with partners Spotless Facilities Services and Aurecon.

Opened to the public in April 2017, the SCUH complex features a state-of-the-art health facility and teaching hospital comprising 450 beds, growing to a 738-bed facility in 2021, with a design built for expansion beyond that capacity. The 164 000 metre squared main hospital building forms the centre of the new hospital, and is split over six functional levels, plus roof top plant rooms and helipad.

Aurecon was engaged by the PPP consortium’s design and construction builder, Lendlease, to provide civil, structural and mechanical/electrical/plumbing (MEP) engineering and environmentally sustainable design (ESD) services. From successfully being awarded the project, through to detail design and documentation, and finally a fulltime site based role during construction, SCUH represents over five years of hard work, dedication and passion from the Aurecon team.

Aditi Saha, Associate, Aurecon, who led the site based engineering team for almost three years, says, “Witnessing the transformation of the site from a blank canvas to its final built form has been inspirational.”

“Being trusted by Lendlease to provide a broad range of engineering services on such a large and complex project was an enormous responsibility. I am extremely proud of the effort, enthusiasm and dedication of the Aurecon team in achieving this completion milestone; the hospital is a credit to all those involved,” says Adrian Jenkins, Major Project Director, Aurecon.

“To be personally associated with a piece of social infrastructure that will contribute to better healthcare services on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast for many generations to come is enormously rewarding,” added Adrian.

Award winning

This project has won the following awards for Aurecon:

• 2019 Property Council of Australia Innovation Excellence Awards – Award for Best Public Building (submitted by Lendlease)
• 2018 International Federation of Hospital Engineering (IFHE) International Building Award - Healthcare Building Award 
• 2018 Australia Engineering Excellence Awards, Queensland Division – Queensland Engineering Excellence Award and AEEA Finalist
• 2017 Building Industry Consulting Services International (BICSI) South Pacific Excellence Awards – BICSI South Pacific Professional ICT Design Award
• 2017 Concrete Institute of Australia Awards – Queensland Division Excellence Award, Infrastructure Category
• 2017 Consult Australia Awards for Excellence – Gold Award Winner for Sustainability in Design Category
• 2017 Sustainability Awards – Public Category (submitted by Lendlease)