Leisure Centre pool finally opens doors to the public
By Aura McMenamin
THE newly-repaired pool in Clondalkin Leisure Centre opened Friday, March 23, after a technical fault prevented the pool from being fully operational for months.
Mechanical problems with the pool’s boom, a mechanical device which is used to divide the pool into the shallow and deep areas – with the boom acting like a wall that can be moved up and down, had hampered the training schedules of local swimming clubs since last May.
The repairs to the boom at the Clondalkin Leisure Centre was successful
The boom wall remained stuck at 17m in the pool’s length.
This dampened the spirits of competitive swimming clubs like the Phoenix Masters who require a pool length of 25m for their training sessions and had to squeeze their members into the schedules of other sports complexes to accommodate them.
South Dublin County Council last year assessed that a “bespoke piece of equipment” needed to be fabricated and fitted by a UK dive team to fix the boom wall issue.
Complex problems
The council said last year when assessing the damage: “The problems are complex and given the type of operation, which is under water, in confined spaces and requiring the services of an overseas company, very challenging.”
However, in a letter sent to public representatives earlier last month, a council spokesperson said: “The dive team have been onsite and the works that were identified in the original assessment were carried out within the scheduled time.”
The letter said that “repairs were successful and facilitated access to a confined space within the structure”.
The council declined to give a cost for repairs.
The future of the pool at Tallaght Leisure Centre is still murky as it is facing similar issues with its boom wall also stuck at 17m.
The council told The Echo last month that the damage is “quite significant” and that the cost of the needed refurbishment was “substantial”.
