Public pool to reopen on Boxing Day
QUEENSTOWN’S public swimming pool will reopen on Boxing Day after an unscheduled fiveweek closure caused by falling ceiling tiles.
Alpine Aqualand closed to the public on November 19 so the tiles could be removed after several failed and fell into the pool.
Queenstown Lakes District Council sport and recreation manager Simon Battrick said staff initially spotted water stains on tiles above the learntoswim pool, a part of the complex which opened in 2008.
‘‘We wanted to look above the tiles to check the structure of the roof. There were no issues there, but the tiles had moist ure in them,’’ he said.
The council started investigating replacing those tiles, believing they would be structurally sound until its next maintenance shutdown, scheduled for midyear next year.
However, about 10 days later a ceiling tile fell into the pool near the hydroslide.
Soon after, another fell from above the Lazy River feature and then more started to drop.
‘‘We identified other spots in the roof where we could see it starting — the tiles looked like they were slumping.’’
The council had no choice but to shut the pool completely for health and safety reasons.
While that had caused some inconvenience to regular users, there had been ‘‘very little backlash’’, he said.
‘‘They understand we have to put their safety first.
‘‘We did try really hard to make arrangements for them where we could, but that’s the challenge when you only have two indoor covered pools in the region,’’ Mr Battrick said.
All the pools had been drained over the past five weeks, scaffolding had been erected and about 2000 ceiling tiles had been removed, several of which were showing signs of failure, he said.
While movement in buildings was ‘‘not uncommon’’, the council was still in the early stage of its investigation into the ‘‘root cause’’ of the issue.
The tiles would be replaced with a different, specifically aquatic, type of tile, but it had not been possible to do that in the last five weeks.
The tiles would be replaced and the floor resurfaced during the next scheduled maintenance period. Patch repairs had been made during the recent closure.
Funding for the latter had come from a renewal programme budget, but the cost of the ceiling was an ‘‘unbudgeted item’’.
The first stage had cost about $300,000. It was not known yet how much the second stage would cost.
The process of filling and heating the pools had begun and the facility would be open for business again from 8am on Wednesday.