Residents of Shire of Collie can at last look forward to year-round swimming. Last month Council agreed, subject to the completion of a business plan, to proceed with a $7.3M three-stage redevelopment plan which will add two new pools to its aquatic centre. The first two stages will upgrade the existing outdoor 50m pool and add a new 255 m2 outdoor leisure pool.
Stage 3, which will result in a $3.3M 6-lane 25m indoor heated pool operating year-round, offers interesting comparisons with the proposed Denmark Aquatic Centre – estimated by CCA to cost nearly three times as much. Why is this so?
The diagram shows the new indoor 25m pool in the lower right hand corner. Note how snugly the water space fits inside its enclosure: it occupies about 40% of the available space. This is in marked contrast with the proposed concept design for Denmark which has a fill factor of only 15%. Bearing in mind that most of the capital cost rests in the building, not the pool, the Collie design is much more efficient. The message here is that the floor plan used by CCA is by no means the last word: responsive architecture can result in significant savings – perhaps even halving the capital cost.
However we mustn’t forget that the Denmark plan includes an enclosed hydrotherapy pool – whereas Collie’s design does not. While the planners recognize their community’s need they believe that it can be met by running the 25m pool at 31°C - a higher temperature than would otherwise be desirable. DACCI regards this as an unfortunate compromise. The Australian Physiotherapist’s Association recommends that hydrotherapy pools should be thermoneutral –the body should neither gain nor lose heat – which means that they should run at 34°C ± 0.5°C.
This is the main reason why DACCI has insisted on a separate warm water space in the local design - but not the only reason. It makes little sense to pay for energy to run a large pool (say 350m2) at temperatures that are uncomfortably high for most swimmers when the needs of both therapeutic and infant aquatics may be serviced by a much smaller pool (say only 50m2) that may also be programmed for fewer operating hours per annum.
Finally, the Collie redevelopment confirms that outdoor pools no longer satisfy a community’s needs for aquatic activities year-round. Manjimup residents recognized this reality several years ago when they reconfigured their ageing outdoor 50m pool into two fully enclosed heated water spaces – a leisure pool and an 8-lane 25m pool. Collie has chosen to retain its large seasonal pool but baulked at the running costs of making it a year round facility – deciding it would be cheaper to build and run a 25m indoor pool.
The existing 50m swimming pool at Collie is shown at 1 and the new leisure pool at 2 beneath the canopy at 18 and adjacent to the BBQ area at 5. The new indoor 25m pool is at 3; the plant room at 13 (under the green bank at 12) and the heat pumps at 15. Summer entry is at 21 and winter entry at 22. Service access is at 14 and rainwater storage at 20.
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