Photo Courtesy: City of Prince George

By Veronica Beltran

new pool

Breaking ground on new downtown pool

Jul 29, 2020 | 3:06 PM

PRINCE GEORGE–The construction of the new downtown pool has officially begun.

Site preparation and excavation began earlier this month on the new pool which will be located on 7th Ave. between Dominion St. and Quebec St. The new pool will provide enhanced and accessible aquatic services to local residents, and is expected to open in late 2022.

“As a swimmer and lover of aquatic sports, I am excited to see this project get underway. This facility will benefit the entire Prince George community, giving people of all ages and different mobility a place to have fun, exercise, and develop an important life skill.”–Catherine McKenna, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities

The new pool will feature things including a six-lane, 25-metre lap pool, a four-lane 25-metre teaching pool with warmer water and shallow depth, a leisure pool with a lazy river, beach entry, and play features.

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“Council is very pleased and excited to see construction starting on this new downtown landmark. Together with the architect, City staff used input from user groups to create a modern, energy-efficient, and accessible facility, which will help the City to serve the aquatics needs of residents for years to come,” said Prince George Mayor, Lyn Hall.

“I feel that the work City staff and the architect have done in designing the new pool has really raised the bar in regards to how buildings can and should be built in order to make them accessible to everyone.”–Chris Gobbi, Chair of the City’s Advisory Committee on Accessibility

The pool tanks will feature shallow entries and “pool pods” to provide people with mobility devices to enter. The facility will also have much-improved lines of sight for lifeguards to increase safety for patrons and the change rooms will open onto the shallowest ends of the pools to decrease the likelihood of falls into deep water.

The new pool will also be connected to the City’s Downtown Renewable Energy System which provides heat sourced from wood waste at Lakeland Mills. The project is budgeted to cost $42 million: $35 million for the pool design and construction, as well as $7 million for the acquisition of the site and demolition operations. The federal and provincial governments are providing $10 million in funding support from the Community, Culture and Recreation Infrastructure Stream of the Investing in Canada Plan – it’s the largest federal/provincial investment in Prince George infrastructure in about a decade.