Yeovil Hospital’s brand-new multi-storey car park opens to the public tomorrow (Wednesday, 22 March).
Hospital board members joined with staff members, Trust governors, and colleagues from estates partner Interserve Prime, to celebrate the completion of the work ahead of the car park’s official opening at 6am, Wednesday morning.
Wednesday’s opening is the final part of an ambitious project which has also seen the development of a new one-way system and link road to improve traffic flow across the hospital site.
The new car park is an impressive addition to the hospital site, featuring a purple glass frontage and special aluminium ‘fins’ as part of the external design. Built over four floors, it includes 7,000 tonnes of concrete and 500 tonnes of steel, and sits on 409 load-bearing foundation ‘piles’, which together measure a total of 2.4km – more than six times the height of the Empire State Building!
The car park offers 650 spaces, shared between public and the staff, and uses a barrier-controlled, pay-on-exit system, enabling motorists to pay only for the duration of their stay. Other parts of the site, including drop-off areas, will be monitored by automatic number-plate recognition cameras to ensure appropriate use and to maintain access for users. There has been an increase of 100 per cent in the number of blue badge spaces, with 31 spaces now available within the multi-storey car park, as well as new parent and child parking spaces, and even electric car charging points.
The project was delivered in partnership with the hospital’s strategic estates partner, Interserve Prime, which used its technical expertise and experience to manage the design, development, and construction. The funding of the car park and link road has also been sourced externally by Interserve Prime, meaning money and resources are not being drawn away from patient care. The car park will instead create revenue that will be re-invested back into the hospital and its frontline patient services. The cost of the project not only covers the car park but also the new link road.
Paul Mears, Chief Executive of Yeovil Hospital, said: “Improving parking at our hospital has been an ambition of this Trust for many years. The number of spaces and the useability of our previous car park haven’t been able to meet demand for some time and patients and visitors have often had to queue at the busiest times of the day.
“It has been fascinating to watch this building grow over the last 14 months, and I’d like to say thank you to our strategic estates partner Interserve Prime and our own parking team for their dedication and hard work to get us to today’s opening. This is an important moment in our continued work to modernise the hospital and make it fit for the needs of the population we serve, and will make it easier and safer for those coming to Yeovil Hospital by car in the decades to come.”
Iain Saunders, Director of the Yeovil Estates Partnership with Interserve Prime, said: “The multi-storey car park has been a gateway project for the partnership and the hospital. Facilities such as these are vital to improving the experience of patients and staff visiting the hospital and it’s fantastic to see the new car park open.
“As a key part of the wider masterplan for transforming the hospital site, this frees up space for the hospital to deliver new facilities and clinical services, providing extra capacity to meet demand now and in the future.”
The new car park is situated on Higher Kingston, across the road from the hospital’s main entrance. Motorists are asked to follow signage which will direct them to the car park, to drop-off points, and through the new one-way system.
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Categorised in: Trust news and events
This post was written by Communications Team
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