An important milestone has been reached in the construction of Great Sankey Neighbourhood Hub with the new swimming pool roof finally in place.
A brand new glass roof has now been installed, which will bring lots of light and air into the pool hall once the facility is fully open next year.
A new viewing gallery will also soon be complete, providing the opportunity for spectators to observe the action in both the main and training pools, which have been upgraded to deck level swimming pools.
The construction work to refurbish the existing pool roof and viewing gallery has thrown up significant challenges, which have caused considerable delay to the project and additional cost to its refurbishment.
Initially, the existing pool hall roof was going to be recovered and treated. However, once work started to remove the internal ceiling, it was clear that it needed far more work than initial surveys indicated.
The construction team discovered the failure of the concrete ring beam supporting the roof trusses, which occurred during the building’s original construction in the 1970s.
This meant that work on the pool below had to be halted, whilst temporary props were installed to support the roof structure.
As a result of this, both the pool roof and viewing gallery had to be redesigned to introduce additional permanent steel frames to support the affected area of the concrete beam.
Cllr Tony Higgins, executive member for leisure and community at Warrington Borough Council, said: “As with any major construction project, challenges can be unearthed during the building process, which can cause delays in the work schedule.
“However, I am delighted to see that the challenges with the pool roof have been rectified and that the new roof and viewing area will provide such a pleasant experience for both swimmers and spectators.”
Emma Hutchinson, managing director of LiveWire, added: “The existing leisure centre was built in the 1970s and like any well-used building of its age, had deteriorated over time.
“Since construction work began on this project, it became apparent that additional work was needed to refurbish the existing building in a way which brings it up to the high specification of the new build element of the scheme.
“Additional survey works have been carried out on the remainder of the pool hall to check for other areas of structural failure and I am pleased to say that no other issues have been found.”
The two new pools are just one element of the multi-million pound development that will bring a range of leisure, health, library and cultural services to the area, in what will be LiveWire’s first dementia-friendly facility.
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Emma Hutchinson, managing director of LiveWire, added: “The existing leisure centre was built in the 1970s and like any well-used building of its age, had deteriorated over time.
“Since construction work began on this project, it became apparent that additional work was needed to refurbish the existing building in a way which brings it up to the high specification of the new build element of the scheme.
“Additional survey works have been carried out on the remainder of the pool hall to check for other areas of structural failure and I am pleased to say that no other issues have been found.”
Why on a major project were surveys not undertaken before work on site started, or at the very least prior to the award of the £4.3 acceleration sum, to determine the condition of the existing structure? It should have been obvious a 1970s building would have suffered some degree of deterioration by 2017.