While it’s not about to dump snow or water on the swimmers and pelicans below, the Canada Games Pool roof needs to be replaced.
City parks, culture and recreation director Byron McCorkell said Thursday the membrane roof has sprung a few leaks in recent years and is two decades old.
“Over the last number of years, it’s had spot leaks and stuff like that,” he said.
“We have a $340,000 problem and we need to address it. Will that roof collapse tomorrow? No.”
McCorkell doesn’t have that money in his regular operating budget, so the roof covering has gone on his supplemental list for consideration in the 2013 budget deliberations.
The pool was originally built in 1992 with a salt water system that caused problems for the window frames and door jambs. Since then, the system has been changed and dehumidification has helped prevent corrosion.
But the membrane has aged, as all rooftop coverings do. McCorkell said roofing has been replaced on the Memorial Arena and the sports centre. Now it’s the pool’s turn.
“We try to go about 20 years (between roofing changes),” he said.
“We’ve had it on our to-do list for a couple of years now. It was brought forward in management level discussions and in our maintenance cycle. We’ve pushed it back a couple of years already.
“We are at the point now we feel it needs to be done as soon as we can. Does it mean something will fall apart? No. We may have patching and minor repairs to do.”
When the pool was joined up with the fieldhouse to become the Tournament Capital Centre, the front lobby and locker area was renewed. But not the main pool space, so its roof is older than that covering the rest of the building.
