Emergency repairs and upgrades at East Maitland Aquatics Centre to cost nearly half a million dollars

Emergency repairs and upgrades at East Maitland Aquatics Centre to cost nearly half a million dollars

Maitland City Council has set aside nearly half a million dollars to carry out emergency repairs and upgrades at East Maitland Aquatics Centre, following a decision at Tuesday night’s Council meeting.

The works, set to start after an expedited selected tender process, are a short term repair of the pool structure and tile bed to prevent water loss. This will allow the centre to reopen for the second half of the 2022/23 season.

Investigations at the facility revealed several major issues over the winter months of 2022, including failing pool expansion joints resulting in substantial water loss, impeded slab movement resulting in ‘tenting’ of the tile bed, and various compliance defects.

Repairs include the installation of core holes to relieve pressure, reinstating all pool expansions joints, applying backing rod and sealant to the tile bed and structural shell, remove of tiles and retiling of joints, repair of failed tiles areas, and installation of hydrostatic valves within the pool base.

The estimated cost of the repairs is $376,000. Dewatering of the site, if required, will cost an additional $120,000.

The predicted life span of the expansion joints is 24 to 36 months, and repairs will take around three months from their start date, which is yet to be determined.

‘East Maitland Aquatic Centre is a facility where we have seen increasing maintenance necessary since 2005 to try and stay ahead of the issues that we knew would arise, for several reasons,’ General Manager, David Evans said.

‘The site’s topography– at the bottom of a hill – has been a big challenge, but the facility’s age is perhaps the biggest. These works will aim to get the pool back open in early 2023 and extend its life at least another two to three years.

‘One of the challenges of any repair option we might explore is that they all require the pool to be completely dry, so we might encounter problems both from the weather or from water seeping in from the ground.’

Officers are preparing an updated Maitland Aquatics Strategy to guide the future strategic direction for the Aquatics network across Maitland, and the community will have an opportunity to have their say on the Strategy in the coming months.

Council will continue to inform the community of our progress at East Maitland Aquatic Centre.