The iconic central tower of the old Orange Base Hospital will be the last building to be demolished.
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Michael Tarn, the project manager for the demolition contractors, Zauner Construction, said all the lower level buildings would be demolished first.
“The large tower is right at the end of the program at this point. It will be the start of next year, he said.
“We are starting on the [Prince Street] side and we will work on the lower lying buildings.”
Demolition work started this week is due to be completed next February.
Mr Tarn said there would be constant air-monitoring to control dust and asbestos contaminants.
The site will also have 24 hour CCTV security.
Council spokesman Nick Redmond said the proposed site redevelopment would see the tallest buildings about the height of the existing tower.
“The height that’s proposed compared to what we have got here is pretty similar,” he said.
“We’re not talking something greatly different and we are talking about the eastern end of the site, it’s not about the whole site.”
Mr Redmond said a developer had approached Orange City Council about possibly relocating the NSW Department of Primary Industries [DPI] offices to the hospital site which had necessitated council seeking to rezone the site.
Those plans are currently on public display.
“The rest of the site will probably for residential around the heights we are looking now so there’s no great changes but we had to get it done in case the DPI thing did come off.”
He said council would not re-develop the on-street car park in Sale Street until the future of the whole site became clearer.
Mr Redmond said council was pleased the demolition work had finally started.
“It is great to finally to see some heavy machinery on site and we’ll start to see a lot of work happening over the next few months and we’ll get to a clear site which is great for Orange.
“We have some pretty exciting plans about what the site might look like in the future,” he said.