The aquatic centre part of the Westland Recreation Centre will close in three weeks' time until at least the end of October while the sagging beams in the pool complex are replaced.
The Grey District Council last night decided during a closed meeting not put the contract out for public tender, instead naming Greymouth building company CYB as its preferred contractor after approving an extra $68,535 of over-expenditure above the original project cost of $750,000.
Work will begin almost immediately although the pool will remain open until the close of day on September 1.
All pool staff will be redeployed elsewhere for the duration of the 11-week closure.
The $750,000 settlement for the replacement beams, including $100,000 for the new beams, follows legal action by the council soon after the pool was built eight years ago.
The council has never officially commented on the court settlement, but the amount has previously been revealed in an annual report.
The replacement beams arrived a fortnight ago.
Grey District Mayor Tony Kokshoorn said today the pool would close for up to 11 weeks until the end of October.
"It's all go. I'm so pleased that finally we're going to get this longstanding problem fixed and we can move on."
He was sorry for the inconvenience but said it was unavoidable.
"We apologise but can't do anything about it," Mr Kokshoorn said. "We're trying to put alternatives in place for the likes of the swim school, and looking at Spring Creek (pool at Runanga)."
Council chief executive Paul Pretorius confirmed the council would be "redeploying" staff including to the indoor, unheated Runanga pool, which would open early by September 2.
Negotiation was also under way to redeploy some staff to other areas within the council organisation.
Mr Pretorius said some practical issues were still being worked through, including having the project design peer reviewed and varying the existing resource consent for the complex to enable the beam replacement to get under way almost immediately.
"We're keeping the pool open for as long as possible now, in spite of the contractor being on site. That won't impact on the use of the pool," Mr Pretorius said.
Mr Kokshoorn said the project would take up all the compensation money for the existing sagging beams.
The council still needed to come up with $68,535 in contingency money last night, with $20,000 of that from existing reserves and the rest to be made up from existing budgets this financial year.
The council made the call to use CYB because it had the expertise and had a good track record with the council over a long period. The project was technically complex and the level of engineering difficulty of finding "an appropriate solution" could not be underestimated.
"We've done it on the basis that we don't have to replace the entire roof. It's a very technical job but we're confident it will work out well. The solution had to allow for the existing roof structure and cladding of the building to be retained in place, as replacing the roof will add a substantial cost, which would make the project unaffordable to council."
Mr Kokshoorn said the public had been well forewarned of the possibility of the pool closure.
The gym area of the recreation centre will remain open for the duration.
- by Brendon McMahon
