CONTRACT LET

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27291, 18 January 1950, Page 4

CONTRACT LET

First Two Villas At Cherry Farm Work on the first two of a number of villas to comprise the new mental hospital at Cherry Farm, on the main highway near Waikouaiti, is expected to begin next week. The Ministry of Works has let a tender for the work to the Love Construction Company, Ltd,, Dunedin, and the contractors will probably begin work on the villas next week. Each of the villas will provide accommodation for 50 patients in three wards. If the whole of the present plans for the development of the new hospital are carried out, the hospital buildings will include a nurses’ home, an administration block, a hospital, a bulk store, a butchery and bakery, a cookhouse and mess, a library and cafeteria, a laundry, workshops and a boiler house, residences for medical and other staff, and other subsidiary buildings. The new villas are to be built on the terrace overlooking the Waikouaiti River above the junction of the main highway and Bucklands road, and much of the roading required for the new development has been completed.

Plans are now almost finished for the provision of an up-to-date water supply for the new hospital. Water will be pumped from the Waikouaiti River to two reservoirs, each of a capacity of 750,000 gallons, and will receive chlorination and other treatment to ensure purification. From the reservoirs, the water will gravitate to the hospital buildings through a 9in main. The installation of a sewage treatment station is also planned, and the plant will be of the latest design. After treatment, the effluent will be discharged into the Waikouaiti River at a point well below the intake of the water supply.

The two villas on which work will start shortly are self-contained units of one storey with timber framing faced with a veneer of Oamaru stone and plaster. The buildings will each be about 190 ft long and will have a maximum width of 165 ft over the wings, of which there will be three to each side of the main building. Each villa will contain three wards and a clinic, with bathroom and lavatory accommodation. There will also be a drying room, laundry, dressing and locker room, dining room, day room, kitchen block, sun room and administration block. The contract price for the work of erecting the two villas is abqut £95,000.