A £31 million Dundee swimming pool touted as state-of-the-art when it opened less than 10 years ago will be closed until October next year for essential repairs, it has emerged.
The Olympia needs to stay closed for a further 14 months so water leaks, building fabrics and prematurely ageing equipment can be repaired. If the seven-figure fixes are completed on time, the pool will have been closed for two years.
Engineers identified problems with light fixtures in September 2021, forcing the pool to close in October. The reasons for the closure were not made public until several weeks later, and the affair has left council bosses embarrassed as the building is less than a decade old.
It was built by construction giant Balfour Beatty, which has since been handed a number of other major Dundee building projects including flood protection works and the city's £28m railway station entrance. However, the repairs will be handled by Robertson Construction, which has worked on a multitude of city office and housing schemes.
And price fluctuations mean the repairs will cost £6.1 million - £1.6 million more than was first thought when the repairs were first floated earlier this year. The extra expense will be covered by a council rainy day repairs fund - but already cancel out savings made by the council by choosing the cheapest contractor on offer to build the pool in the first place.
Mark Flynn, convener of Dundee City Council’s city development committee, said: “After a thorough process a clear way forward for the refurbishment of Olympia has been identified which also proposes that there is a strategy for future maintenance closures.
“The prices that came back as part of the tender exercise, which reflect the current market in the context of Brexit, post pandemic demand and the war in Ukraine, mean that the works will cost £1.6m more than has been identified in the capital plan."
A spokesperson for the council said that a report will be presented to councillors on Wednesday July 6, which notes that "several complex linked factors" led to the current closure. However, this report has not yet been published for public scrutiny.
Among the repairs planned are the replacement of the flume launch platform and its supporting structure, the removal of corrosion, refurbishment of steel structures and improvements to ventilation. The works will take four weeks to set up and a further 60 weeks to carry out.
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