As the City of New Westminster prepares to open the doors to təməsew̓txʷ Aquatic and Community Centre, work is continuing on Phase 2 of the project.
Tobi May, the city’s senior manager of civic buildings and properties, said the facility had always been planned as a two-phased project. That was because the city had planned to continue using Canada Games Pool and Centennial Community Centre while construction of the new building was underway.
Canada Games Pool was originally scheduled to remain open until 2023, but it closed suddenly in September 2021 because of damage to the pool tank. In November 2021, the city announced the pool would not reopen and would be decommissioned earlier than originally planned.
Phase 1 of the təməsew̓txʷ Aquatic and Community Centre project includes completion of the aquatics and community centre spaces in the new building.
Phase 2 works, which have been underway for several months, include parking and public realm works on the side of the building near the Royal City Curling Club.
“Phase 2 is on track to completion in summer 2024,” May recently told city council. “And the off-site work, which refers to some improvements along Sixth Avenue, that work will be continuing throughout the remainder of the year.”
Because of the phased construction, visitors to təməsew̓txʷ Aquatic and Community Centre won’t have access to all of the facility’s parking spaces until Phase 2 is finished in July.
“We’re looking at access to 119 of the planned 375 parking stalls when Phase 1 is complete,” May said. “So, when the facility opens, there will be a restriction on parking, but it will be short-lived.”
Like Canada Games Pool and Centennial Community Centre, parking at the community centre will continue to be free.
People who are arriving at the TACC by foot or bicycle will have several entry points to the site (including McBride Boulevard, Cumberland Street and East Sixth Avenue), while vehicles access is via Cumberland Street.
City officials say it may be tough to find parking until Phase 2 is complete – particularly during prime-time hours at the pool – Monday to Thursday (3:30 to 8 p.m.) and during the day on weekends. As a result, the city is encouraging folks to carpool, take transit or walk or cycle to the facility, if possible.
Dean Gibson, the city’s director of parks and recreation, said the parking lot on the side of the site closest to Cumberland will open once site works are completed in the spaces had been used for the construction staging or where buildings like the community centre used to be.
“So, when we open for the grand opening, everything on the McBride side of the building and the exterior spaces will be 100 per cent complete and ready to go,” he said. “On the opposite side of the building, that is still a work in progress. It will be wrapped up by the early summer.”
All 375 parking spaces are expected to be open by July.
“We weren't going to not open the facility simply because we didn't have access to the full capacity of parking at that time,” Gibson said. “We didn't feel like it would be a fair thing to do.”
Why aren’t the community centre and aquatic centre opening at the same time?
When təməsew̓txʷ Aquatic and Community Centre’s doors open on April 29, visitors will be able to make use of services offered in the new community centre. However, they’ll have to wait until May 14 before they can take their first dip in the new leisure pool (which includes a lazy river) or the 50-metre pool.
May said the side of the site that’s home to the competition 50-metre pool is where the city encountered the most extreme of the poor ground conditions. (That occurred early in the construction project.)
“And so, midstream of construction, that's when we decided and made a conscious effort to focus our efforts in accelerating construction elsewhere, knowing that we'd come to the competition pool last,” she said.
Corrinne Garrett, the city’s senior manager of recreation services and facilities, said the pool’s later opening date is due to a series of health inspections it had to go through and the need to get staff into the pool and trained in the operations of the new facility.
“Our goal was to get as much opened as early as possible,” she said.
The city received occupancy to the building on April 11. Instead of waiting and opening the entire building on May 14, Garrett said the city decided to do a soft opening of the community centre a couple of weeks before the aquatic centre facilities.
“As soon as we got occupancy, we knew that we could get staff in and get them trained quicker on the community recreation site than we could in the pool site,” she explained. “Training lifeguard staff how to safely guard and do all the emergency procedures that they need to in that aquatic environment obviously takes a little bit more time than activating a multipurpose space.”
Although the whole civic facility will be up and running in May, some works will be happening around the site until the end of the year.
“Civil off-site improvements, including underground utility upgrades, removal of overhead power poles along Sixth Avenue and road re-aligning around the TACC facility, are in progress,” said a report to council. “Off-site storm water and sanitary upgrades have been complete along with the utility pole undergrounding and removal, with roadwork adjustments anticipated later in 2024.”
