The £37m refurbishment of the Commonwealth Pool has entered its final phase for the planned reopening in the spring of 2012.
Grace Reid, Scotland’s Commonwealth diving star from the Delhi Commonwealth Games went along this week to see the work for herself. She got a bird’s eye view from the top of the 10m diving platform, and seemed pleased with what she saw.
This has been an extremely complex project to upgrade the pool. It has been called a ‘refurbishment’, but with the exception of the shell and some listed parts of the structure, it has really been a complete rebuild. What is remarkable is that work has just been carried on without much fuss, unlike one other project on the other side of town!
A spokesperson for Graham Construction who are undertaking the project, said:-“The new dive facility at the RCP is a major milestone in the project, and tangible evidence of the new pool taking shape. All construction work is now practically complete and our team is now concentrating on final commissioning, including preparing lighting and heating.”
The new facility will have:
-a 50m eight lane pool for community and specialist swimming use with a boom capable of subdividing the pool into two areas
– a reorientated 25m diving pool up to 5m deep with moveable floor which can be used for swimming when not in use for diving
– a dry dive facility including trampoline and spring boards to allow divers to practice out of the pool
-a 25m pool with moveable floor to accommodate warm-up provision, swimming lessons, and informal play utilising pool toys
– new dry soft play facilities
– a refurbished, expanded gym and fitness studios
– a refurbished an designed changing village, meeting and conference rooms.
The RCP will host the diving events for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth games and the training of Team GB prior to next year’s Olympic Games.
Thomas Haywood is an Edinburgh photographer. You can see his work on his website
Thomas Haywood is a freelance photographer producing great royalty-free images in Scotland.
