Plans for the building of Bristol's new £430-million superhospital have been submitted to the city council for approval.

The application, consisting of 141 documents and drawings, has been handed in to Bristol City Council so that planners can give the go-ahead for building to start on the site.

Initial planning approval was given for the redevelopment of Southmead Hospital in September 2007, but officers and councillors will now have to consider more detailed plans.

The private finance initiative (PFI) hospital will be built by consortium Carillion who will arrange the funding of the project and its maintenance for 30 years in exchange for regular payments from North Bristol NHS Trust (NBT).

The superhospital will bring all major services from the two north Bristol hospitals under one roof, with many departments transferring from Frenchay Hospital, which will

become a community facility. The bulk of the original plans remain the same but the main building has now been moved following comments from the council.

It had originally been designed as three interlinking seven-storey towers but in the new application there are three buildings ranging from three to five storeys, linked by central concourse.

Initially the Avon Orthopaedic Centre was going to be kept as part of the new hospital, but now it will become a car park.

Plans include an 800-bed hospital with a new accident and emergency department and community hospital on site.

Internal roads on the hospital site will be redesigned with a multi-storey car park for visitors located by the main building.

There will be a total of 2,700 parking spaces on the site including the main multi-storey car park and one for staff.

A helicopter pad will be located on a grassy area near the A&E department, rather than on the roof, with aircraft expected to attend the hospital about 40 times a month.

The site has been spilt into zones, with all the necessary facilities being located where they are most useful and wards have been designed so that 75 per cent of beds are in single rooms.

Administration and other non-clinical support will be sited away from the main hospital.

The three entrances to the site will remain at Monk's Park Avenue, Dorian Way and Southmead Road.

A square and piazza will be created at the Monk's Park entrance and the main buildings, including the A&E, will be located on the Dorian Way side of the site, with the height of buildings stepping down so that they are lower towards the residential area.

More than 600 trees will be planted around the site as part of landscaping works being carried out and there will be wildlife habitat areas.

Women's and maternity services currently on the Southmead site, which are in more modern buildings, will remain where they are.

The layout of the inside of the building has been developed with the help of patient groups who have met with the design team.

Some of the buildings near the Southmead Road entrance have been retained in the new plans.

Work has almost been completed on the pathology and learning and research buildings near the site, ready for construction to start on the rest of the site.

A computer data centre has also been built on the site to support the running of information technology and enable the moving of cables away from proposed building work.

Separate planning applications had already been submitted to Bristol City Council to move substations, boilers and parking and also to provide a temporary replacement for catering facilities.

The double mini-roundabout at the junction of Pen Park Road, Monks Park Road and Southmead Road will be redesigned as part of a financial package the developers will be making available to the city council to improve access to the new hospital.

The section 106 arrangement also includes provision for public transport and other roadworks near the hospital.

The design team has been working with the city council to ensure that their plans fit in with local policy as much as possible.

Once planning permission has been obtained the final hurdle will be for the final stages of the competitive process to finish and the contracts to be signed.

The project team hope that full building work will then start on the site next spring, with the hospital due for completion by the end of 2013.

Deputy director of projects at NBT Tricia Down said: "This is a very important step for us.

"When we get approval we will be able to get on and build the hospital.

"It feels really good to be at this point.

"It has been a lot of hard work.

"We feel we have got a really good hospital.

"The fact that 75 per cent of rooms will be single will help in the management of infection control and the patient experience because it will be like being in a private room.

"All the key services are next to each other, which is important in terms of getting patients really quickly to treatment."