Photos: Aquatics Centre Pool Filled With Water
As Bermuda prepares to host an international field at the 2013 Island Games in July, the pool at the new Aquatics Centre in Devonshire looks to be about completed, and was recently filled with water, a task which took six and a half days.
Staff will be trained to manage the pool during the month of April, and the pool is scheduled to be opened in May. During the construction process there some controversy [view past coverage here], however all sides have always agreed that the island has no shortage of human talent to put in the pool, with Bermuda having a number of talented swimmers.
Last year Glenn Blakeney, who was Sports Minister at that time, said “Within the first year operation, the Aquatics Centre at the National Sports Centre will offer swim lessons, aquatic fitness classes, lap swimming, and rehabilitation services, introduce sport development and training modules for water polo, diving and synchronized swimming as well as offer support to Masters, Triathlon and competitive swimming. The pool will host events, meets, and parties and rent lane space to clubs so they can further develop and grow their membership base.”
Click photos to enlarge:
Read More About
Category: All, Photos, Sports, Sports
Comments (34)
Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed
Articles that link to this one:
- Minister & NSC Chairman To Christen New Pool | Bernews.com | April 6, 2013
- Digicel Business Provides Service For NSC | Bernews.com | August 5, 2013
have BASA changed their tune regarding this project?
It needs a roof and separate dive pool, but other than that…..
And didn’t Blakeney in his infinite wisdom go against all the advice re: construction??
The dive pool is separate.
It is? Doesn’t it reduce the length of the pool?
Actually it isn’t.
It is don’t you see the wall separating the pools i saw it in person myself. It is two separate pools there
No it’s not. It is one pool. That wall moves along the pool to shorten or lengthen the dive area but it is one pool.
It isn’t separate – what you see is what they call a bulk head which splits the pool into two – usually used at the 25 meter mark to split the pool in half – same pool though.
A much more economical design would of been to have a second smaller pool acting as a dive tank and a warm down facility. Warm down facilities are needed to hold events such as CARIFTA. A dive tank needs to be deeper so having the dive tank in a separate smaller pool leads there to be a smaller volume of water needed to be heated and thus much less running costs. This advice was ignored by the government and the pool is not able to be opened for a significant portion of the year. The construction costs for making the pool that we have was actually many millions of dollars more than the cost needed for the more useful design which leads one to wonder why we made this decision and the advice given to government for the past decade from BASA was ignored.
I think the Carifta Swim Team should be the first to use the pool
The pool area smells awful! Dont understand that I hope they clear it up
Another late project with cost over-runs. Thanks PLP. The $20m plus running costs would have been very useful right now.
Does any body know if the pool is heated?
As i recall it does have heat but they said something about it being very costly to keep it running during the winter months due to the volume of water
The monthly cost was a 1 followed by a hefty number of zeroes. I can’t for the life of me remember whether it was 10,000 or 100,000 though.
diving should be fun on those windy days in Bermuda…
Idk why it wasn’t enclosed in a building, it does get quite chilly up there on cloudy days and then you’re at the mercy of the weather when you have competitions.
Another half baked half thought out project brought to you by “brilliant” minds.
I went for a dip last night, it was a little cool. It also felt a little short of 50 meters to me.
Yeah, I saw you there – next time put ya clothes on!!!
Just be happy the pool is finished. People often complaint about things they just cant fix. Get over it already, the damn pool is there to stay.
Exactly, shame they didn’t build it to the required international meet standards, now we are stuck with the substandard pool
LMAO!!! Bickering Bermudians………yall crack me up on a daily basis!!! Complain about everything. This is why none of my American friends aren’t too excited about visiting the lovely islands of Bermuda, especially since they are familiar with Bernews now. Uuummmmmmmm think about that over a cup of Tea!
The pool is 50m. It’s heated. It’s 8 lanes and diving is in the end of the 50m swimming pool. The orientation of the platform is awkward and the colour is a diving spotting nightmare. Yes, it should be covered. Keep in mind that a separate diving well is ideal, yes…but it isn’t necessary. Most of us who learned to dive/swim/play water polo did so in a pool comparable to this one. Good programming is key. Every special interest group needs to be afforded the appropriate time to train…factoring in public swim, water aerobics, etc. I believe that the pool should be enclosed in a bubble…undoubtedly its worst problem. We need to make it work, though.
Very well said “Katura” and I applaud you!! Yes, I agree, the pool is completed, looks good so let’s make it WORK!
winter months, XGAMES anyone??
REQUIREMENTS FOR SUCCESS
1) Provide more seating. How are you ever going to hold a major swimming/diving event with 6 rows of seating.
2) Separate the dive well from the pool. How are you going to have swim practice (in 50m pool) and dive practice at the same time?
3) Provide Hot Tub for divers (Necessity for divers to keep warm)
4) Pool Heating:
Option 1) Belco to re-route condenser water to plate and frame heat exchanger and pump via secondary loop back to pool. (high construction cost, low heating costs). Belco saves on electricity and pool saves on heating costs, possible win win. *Thorough analysis required.
Option 2) Build dome over pool. Will keep heat in during winter months but costs for cooling space in warmer months to be considered. *Thorough analysis on HVAC requirements to be considered for pricing.
Option 3) Pool to be outfitted with own water cooled generator. All HVAC equipment to be water cooled. Heat rejection from condenser water (summer) and generator liquid coolant lines to be tied into plate/frame heat exhanger and cycled through pool on secondary loop.
Im assuming all these analysis have been done in the design phase prior to pool construction. Not doing it would of been a major lack of effort/care on somebody side.
1) Yeah.
Though I think there is temporary seating to be brought in for major events.
2) Unnecessary. Nobody trains long course year round. Nobody trains long course every day. As I said before, programming is key. Diving and synchro could be going on simultaneously in the deep end while the swimmers train short course. There is also the possibility to split the pool lengthwise and give swimmers 3-4 lanes to swim long course. LOTS of swimmers can fit in four lanes of a 50m pool.
3) It’s coming. And there’s plumbing in the diving platform to provide for installment of showers (which are actually much more sanitary than the hot tub).
4) There are various options to heat the pool in addition to the ones you’ve mentioned. The cost effectiveness of running it is key. Unfortunately, worldwide, aquatic centres don’t make money. They eat money. Not just ours…all of them. So the absolute best we can do with our pool is attempt to reduce as much of the variable cost as possible (ie. heating in winter months) and generate as much revenue as possible. Though I’d argue that erecting a bubble would assist in accomplishing this. Bubbles have heated air (which is much less expensive than having to heat gallons of water to a ridiculous temperature and have the heat simply float away) AND universities and clubs want places to have training camps. It’s too cold in Bermuda in the winter to have winter training camp and there’s definitely a demand for places to house training for swimming and diving teams.
Is it true that this thing is going to cost around 50k a month to heat??
$90,000 in the winter if they tried
Thank you “Just Saying” for your input. You sound like you know what you are talking about.
I will take my grandchildren to see the pool tomorrow.
They will be excited. They are pool fanatics.
I absolutely agree with Just Saying… It seems like a trend with government projects that are for the people to not think about the revenue that can be gained from the audience in the stands. There is definitely NOT ENOUGH SEATING at the pool, nor the New Hockey grounds just 50 yards away. National Stadium should be able to accommodate 1/3 of our population. When Government gave the Southside Racetrack it had and still has very little seating. The BFA soccer field, the Netball courts which are in desperate need of upgrading. Even on the private level of things, BAA field was done no seating, when Toursim does the volleyball on the beach no/little seating…. just saying
Just so I am clear…A world Class Diver who has been to the Olympics, dived/trained in pools all over the world and was a member the National Sports Center Trust when the pool was being developed gives an opinion but “Just Sayin” chimes in, types a lot of words and sounds like they know what they are talking about and ya”ll lap in up hook, line and sinker?
Trust deez Bermudians. Ya girl already said it aint perfect. Already said its stuff they could have done better. I met her and I think she’s intelligent, accomplished, humble and underrated. She has an education and a place in history. If my daughter grows up to be half the human being Katura Horton is I would feel like I had done my part as father. Blakeney is usually a joker but putting that girl on the National Sports Center Trust was the smartest thing he done. If she says the pool will work I believe her. And my kid will be up there first thing learning to dive too. Just Sayin’ can just say stuff to people who don’t know. I’m gonna go with the history maker.