Royal Prince Alfred has been treating patients in Camperdown since 1882, and the NSW Government has decided the fix is not to move it. The A$940 million redevelopment is the largest capital investment in the hospital’s history, and the whole difficulty of the job is in that one decision: a new acute clinical building goes into the middle of a working campus that serves a district of roughly 740,000 people, with no pause in emergency, intensive care or maternity services. CPB Contractors came in through early contractor involvement and picked up the main works contract in March 2024. The design is a three-firm collaboration between Jacobs, Bates Smart and Neeson Murcutt Neille.
Project Scope
Expanded Emergency Department and expanded Intensive Care Units.
New operating theatre suite, with increased interventional and imaging capacity.
Expanded adult and paediatric inpatient ward accommodation.
Expanded neonatal intensive care, enhanced maternity services and a new birth centre.
New northern arrival point, open garden courtyard, roads, public domain and landscaping.
Staged delivery on a fully operational campus, from the October 2023 first sod through completion in 2028/29.
Why It Matters
Rebuilding a tertiary hospital in place is the hardest delivery problem in institutional construction, and it’s the one most health systems now face. Greenfield replacement moves clinical networks, teaching relationships and referral patterns that took decades to build. Staying put keeps all of that and hands the contractor a five-year logistics problem instead: vibration limits near operating theatres, infection control on every penetration, and a crane radius that overlaps an ambulance bay.
The scope reads as a bet on acuity. Emergency, ICU, theatres, neonatal, imaging. These are the services that can’t be pushed to a suburban site or a day-surgery model, and they’re the services where RPA’s existing stock is oldest. What the budget doesn’t buy is bed numbers in the general wards, which is where the political argument about this project will eventually land.
Project Team & Details
| Developer | Health Infrastructure NSW |
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| Owner / Client | NSW Health / Sydney Local Health District |
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| Architect | Jacobs; Bates Smart; Neeson Murcutt Neille |
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| Consultants | TSA Riley (Project Management) |
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| General Contractor | CPB Contractors |
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| Status | Under Construction |
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| Delivery Method | Design-Build |
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| Funding Source | Public (State) |
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