Essential maintenance works – costing up to €25,000 – on the Sports Centre swimming pool have begun, with the pool expected to reopen towards the end of October.
The pool has been closed since the start of lockdown and has remained inoperational as tiles on the base of the deep-end of the pool as well as along the walls became detached.
Trinity’s swimming pool has had a history of maintenance problems, after being installed incorrectly in the mid-2000s. The company that installed the pool used a substandard product to attach the tiles – repeated closures and short-term remedies have ensued ever since, and this summer the pool was deemed too unsafe for usage.
Head of Trinity Sport and Recreation Michelle Tanner told The University Times in an email statement that “Trinity Sport are pleased to announce the essential repairs works have commenced this week in the swimming pool”.
“The first of the repairs will include replacing of the tiles at the deep end wall and securing matting to the deep end floor of the pool tank. The tiling is a medium term measure and the matting will be a temporary immediate remedial measure which will enable the pool to reopen safely.”
Tanner also said that the works are being carried out by “qualified experienced sub aqua experts, in conjunction with the Estates and Facilities team and are funded internally”, and that the current works would cost in the region of €25,000.
Further repairs will also be required in the future according to Tanner, including more tiling repairs in the pool tank and tiling repairs to the surrounding pool deck. Trinity Sport intends to have these repairs carried out during the Christmas break.
“The repairs works have to be staggered due to the nature of the safety measures, budgetary restrictions, and urgency to open the pool for clubs and users”, Tanner explained.
“Pending completion and national restrictions, we anticipate the pool reopening towards the end of October”, she added
This is the first time medium-term measures have been taken since Trinity Sport and Estates and Facilities agreed on an action plan to fix the swimming pool’s structural deficiencies in August 2019 – an action plan that was largely ignored for over a year.
Trinity Sport has previously used matting as a short-term remedy to prevent tiles from detaching. However, The University Times reported in August that several sports clubs that use the swimming pool found that these coverings were disruptive to their activities.
Last semester when matting was put in place to prevent loose tiles from popping off, Mathieu Proffit, captain of Dublin University Triathlon Club at the time, said that “the two middle lanes were unusable for sport use”.
“There was no way to do a tumble turn or even a regular turn for a while and that was the main problem for us during the second half of the year.”
The women’s captain of Dublin University Swimming Club (DUSC) Cara Kindlon said that: “These quick fixes such as coverings on tiles helped to let our trainings go ahead although they did prove to be quite awkward and an inconvenience in training. Our goalies were hindered in play as the coverings were inside the nets.”
“Also, whenever we did sprints in training up and down the pool it was awkward for our players to swim as these coverings got in the way of turning and holding onto the wall which squished our players together.”
Questions still remain about the fate of Trinity’s swimming pool in the more distant future. The 2019 action plan considered two long-term options: either the full reinstatement of the pool tank and pool deck in the Sports Centre or the relocation of the pool altogether, with T-TEC touted as a potential site for its replacement.
