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Open air lift opens at Tauranga Hospital
08/08/05
The lift linking Tauranga Hospital with its new Clarke St carpark is one of the few open-air lifts in the country.
The giant concrete lift structure has been designed to carry a 2500kg load, or 35 people, and is large enough to take a bed, medical staff and medical equipment. The tender to build the lift was won by a Mt Maunganui company, Associated Lifts. Componentry for the lift came from its supplier in St Sebastian, Spain.
Associated Lifts Managing Director Mike Schofield says the lift cabin is 1800mm wide and 2700mm deep and has been manufactured predominantly in stainless steel. The lift cabin has an entry at both ends and power operated four panel centre opening doors, providing a clear opening width of 1600mm wide. It travels 11 metres and is be raised by twin hydraulic rams and steel wire ropes. The hydraulic pump unit and hydraulic controls are housed in a plant room adjacent to the bottom floor. Closed circuit TV monitoring cameras have been installed at strategic vantage points above the carpark, the lift entry, and in the lift car itself.
Connell Wagner, the structural engineers for the lift and carpark, say the natural ground below the lift comprises of estuarine silts and marine deposited sands from the Pleistocene age.
Senior civil technician Graham Jenkins says to ensure the lift tower is properly supported, steel piles filled with concrete and steel reinforcing were driven 21m below the lift base level. The lift tower steel members and the stair frame weigh nearly 16 tonnes. The tower is clad in concrete panels which are 100mm thick for low maintenance and long durability.
"There are not many lifts in New Zealand installed in the open air, and certainly this is the first in the Bay of Plenty," Mr Jenkins says.
Early concept plans considered options such as an inclined travel hoist, a tunnel and vertical shaft surfacing inside the emergency admissions area and a heliport on top of the lift tower.