Prince Charles Hospital Carpark

LOCATION: Prince Charles Hospital, Rode Road Chermside

TYPE OF PROJECT: Health Care / Carpark

YEAR(S): 2023-2024

CLIENT: Multiplex

The Prince Charles Hospital in Chermside is one of Queensland’s major tertiary hospitals and a key referral centre for cardiothoracic, cardiac surgery, and respiratory medicine services across the state. As demand for health services at the facility continues to grow, infrastructure investment to support that growth is essential — and the new multi-storey car park delivered by Multiplex is a direct and practical response to that need.

The project involved the construction of a new multi-storey car park providing approximately 1,500 car parking spaces alongside the reconfiguration of the existing multi-storey car park on the hospital campus. The new facility also includes comprehensive end-of-trip amenities — storage for 90 bicycles, showers, toilets, and staff lockers — designed to encourage sustainable commuting options for hospital staff while improving the overall experience of the campus. Together, the new and reconfigured structures will support the safe and convenient movement of patients, visitors, and staff across one of Brisbane’s busiest hospital sites and lay the groundwork for the hospital’s continued expansion.

Cogent Scaffolding was awarded the full scaffolding package for the project, working alongside Multiplex — a long-standing client and one of Australia’s leading Tier 1 construction contractors. Scaffolding on a hospital campus presents a distinct set of challenges that set it apart from a comparable structure in a commercial or residential setting. The Prince Charles Hospital is a 24-hour operational facility — patients are receiving care, ambulances are moving, and clinical staff are working around the clock. Construction activity must be planned and sequenced with constant awareness of that operational reality. Access routes for emergency vehicles, pedestrian safety paths for patients and visitors, and noise and vibration controls during sensitive hours all need to be actively managed throughout the programme.

The construction of a multi-storey car park also involves scaffolding considerations that differ from a typical enclosed building. Open-sided, multi-level structures require carefully designed edge protection and perimeter systems at every floor level, with access systems that can service a large and regularly changing floor plate as the structure rises. Managing those requirements efficiently — keeping all construction trades moving without compromising the safety of workers or the hospital community below — is what Cogent’s team delivered on this project.

Completed in December 2024, the new car park is already easing the access pressures that staff, patients, and visitors to the Prince Charles Hospital face daily. It is the kind of infrastructure project that doesn’t always attract headlines, but makes a real and immediate difference to the people who use the hospital every day. Cogent is proud to have contributed to that outcome alongside Multiplex.