Hon Simeon Brown
Minister of Health

Auckland City Hospital has completed major upgrades to its critical infrastructure to strengthen resilience and ensure patients continue receiving essential care even during a major event, Health Minister Simeon Brown says.

The $364.3 million second stage of the Facilities Infrastructure Remediation Programme, unveiled today, delivers a new Central Plant Building and underground service tunnel that significantly enhances the hospital’s ability to withstand and operate through major events.

“This is a milestone for Auckland City Hospital. These upgrades build reliability and give patients and staff confidence that care will continue when it is needed most,” Mr Brown says.

The investment is part of the Government’s $743 million remediation programme, which is modernising critical services across the campus and addressing longstanding infrastructure risks.

The new Central Plant Building and services tunnel house and protect the hospital’s most essential systems, including emergency generators, medical gas supplies, and diesel and water storage tanks. Built on advanced base isolators and deep foundations, the structure is designed to last 100 years and withstand major disasters.

“In the event of a major emergency, this new building will be able to keep Auckland City Hospital operating safely at normal capacity for three days.”

The new service tunnel carries power, water, and other key services between the Central Plant Building and the main hospital, protecting them underground to ensure reliability and resilience.

“This project is about safeguarding our most critical services and ensuring Aucklanders have access to safe, modern hospital care they can rely on.

“Day-to-day, these upgrades will also improve the reliability of essential systems, reducing the chance of service failures and helping ensure patients experience timely, uninterrupted care.”

As part of the Government’s $1 billion Budget 2025 investment in hospitals, a further $73 million has been allocated to third stage of the remediation programme, which will upgrade essential services such as power, heating, and safety systems at Auckland City Hospital and the Greenlane Clinical Centre. The first stage addressed the most urgent issues, and this next phase will continue strengthening Auckland’s critical health infrastructure.

“This includes design work for the next stage of the Auckland hot water pipes replacement project in the main building, with construction on the first stage already underway.

“We are committed to delivering modern infrastructure that supports hospitals and ensures they can keep providing the essential care patients rely on. This investment is about fixing the basics and building the future to safeguard health for generations to come.”

Note:

• Migration of electrical, water, and medical gas systems to the new plant will begin in early 2026, with the plant due to be fully operational by March 2026.
• The Central Building Plan and service tunnel house essential hospital systems including:
  • chillers and cooling towers providing 13 Megawatts of cooling
  • four 2-MegaVolt-Ampere emergency generators
  • diesel and water storage tanks (200,000 litres and 2 million litres)
  • high and low voltage electrical equipment
  • medical gas systems
  • domestic and non-potable water supplies
  • an onsite bore water treatment plant
• The Central Plant Building is a five storey, 5,230m² concrete structure.
• The service tunnel spans 4.5 metres in width and 4.5 metres in height, with depths of 6-15 metres.
• Funding for stage three of the Facilities Infrastructure Remediation Programme was announced in June as part of Budget 2025.

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