City Hall pool on schedule to make a splash in the summer

Construction crews have been working six days a week to get city hall's state-of-the-art pool ready for this summer.

The wading pool area has been under a massive tentand surrounded by temporary fencing since last summer.

"The big pour today is a big milestone for us," said Eugene Gyorfi, program manager ofcity hall civic precinct

"I know there's been a lot of questions about what's under the tent it's not potatoes. We've been getting ready to pour this concrete slab."

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The poolbottom requiresacontinuous pour of 290,000 litres of concrete. The pourstarted at 7 a.m. Wednesday and will continue in 20-minute intervals with concrete trucks arriving until 8 p.m.

The pool, which cost$13.4 million after an extra $3.6 million was approved by council last July,isdesigned to be more accessibleand safer for public use.

Surge tank

The pool's depth will be 15 centimetres. Entry to the pool will be agradual slope rather than the stairs.

Also the new pool's design comes with a surge tank, whichallows officialsto recycle, clean orempty the water when needed.

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"It's actually where we're going to store all the water for the fountain and each night we can actually drain the fountain in about an hour at the end of the day,"Gyorfi said.

"So from a safety and security perspective we don't have standing water as we did with the old design."

The ability to drain the pool water will also give the citythe opportunity to host events in the pool area at night.

Crews have been working sixdays a week, 16 hours a day to complete the project which Gyordiinsists is on time, despite the significant amount ofwork left to do.

"We're on schedule to be finished this summer," he said.

Thetent covering the site will come off in the coming weeks as crews begin the next stage ofconstruction, installing 45,000 granite tiles.