The aging Vancouver Aquatic Centre is closed again after a piece of concrete broke off from the roof and fell into the pool.
The Vancouver Park Board initially said that the facility was closed due to an operational issue, but did not offer any further details.
Social media posts reported that something had fallen from the ceiling into the pool and that staff had ordered everyone out.
On Tuesday afternoon, Steve Jackson, general manager of Vancouver’s water parks and recreation, confirmed that something did fall into the pool.
“A patron did notice a splash in the pool, and upon further investigation, there was a piece of concrete spalling that we believe fell from the roof,” he said.
“So out of an abundance of caution, we did close the pool and evacuate patrons just to make sure that now our facilities team can go in there and do some work and inspect and understand what’s going on there before we reopen it, making sure that that facility is safe.”
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The Vancouver Aquatic Centre was built in 1974.
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In February 2024, portions of the Vancouver Aquatic Centre were closed after a chunk of concrete roughly the size of a deck of playing cards fell from the ceiling.
In a statement, the city said the incident happened as a result of work being done to the exterior of the building, which dislodged the concrete along with several Styrofoam acoustic panels.
Jackson said in this case, the facilities team is investigating.
“Early obvious thoughts are, again, this is an aging facility,” he said.
“We do have our plans in place to renew that in the coming year. And so, not surprised, we actually do have netting up in the aquatic centre in certain areas where we’ve seen some of this in the past. This is a new finding in where that happened.”
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Jackson admitted that public communication about the issue could have been better and said it’s too early to tell when the centre might reopen.
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“We’re just making sure that we’ve done the work to make sure that the facility is safe and we’re sort of doing that with an abundance of caution,” he said.
“Again, we don’t want a piece of concrete falling on a patron while they’re swimming and we want to make sure that everyone in the pool is operating in a safe way.”
Earlier this year, Vancouver council approved a $175 million plan to build a new aquatic centre, but not everyone is happy.
The replacement will include a smaller, 25-metre lap pool.
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