After three months of renovations, that resulted in its temporary closure, the Genesis Place Recreation Centre pool area finally re-opened its doors to the public on Nov. 1.
The three-month project began Aug. 1 and officially wrapped up Oct. 31, which was the estimated timeline for the project when it was announced in April.
“We’re glad to see it open on time. It was a lot of work with the construction, but it was also very quiet with the aquatic-area shut down,” Genesis Place Manager Greg Lockert said. “It’s good to see people back in there using it.
“We had to make some alterations along the way, just some changes, but still scheduling and construction went according to plan.”
The project is the first re-tiling project taken on at the pool-area since it opened in January 2004.
According to Lockert, the entire pool was re-tiled, as well as the pool deck, hot tub and change rooms. He said the change rooms went from being half tile and half cement to all tiles, which will increase safety in the change rooms for visitors.
“Water and anything don’t really mix too well but tiles are a little less slippery than the polished cement was,” he said.
A budget of $1.4 million was endorsed by the Community Services Advisory Board and the City of Airdrie council in April. The final cost of the project will be determined after completion of the steam room and of the deficiency, but Lockert said he expects it to come in on budget.
All amenities in the pool-area including the leisure pool, hot tub, top pool, waterslide and dive tank are now available to customers. The only amenity still under construction is the steam room, which will remain closed for another couple of weeks.
The steam room will have its roof completely retiled and, due to the makeup of the room, will take longer for the grout to set.
“We had some problems with the cement tile ceiling,” Lockert said. “The grout has to cure for 10 to 12 days because of the humidity in that area. We don’t want any tiles falling off the ceiling.”
With a new epoxy grout used, the life expectancy of the renovations will be between 12 to 15 years, depending on the usage of the pool.
Although the pool closure was seen as an inconvenience for many, the work needed to be done, according to Lockert. It was a tough decision as to when the pool would be closed, but it was determined late summer and early fall were the best times for renovations to be done, he said.
“There is never a perfect time to shut down a pool when you only have one,” Lockert said. “Our numbers over the last five years have shown that August is one of our slowest months of the year for people using the pool.
“To find three months that are actually slow is pretty much impossible, so we picked the best time we could come up with.” -With files from Christina Waldner.
