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The Sandwell Aquatics Centre is one of the new facilities being built for the next Commonwealth Games, set to take place in Birmingham from 28th July to 8th August 2022.
With less than a year till handover, Wates is now focused on completing the three pools. Various dignitaries visited the site this week for a ‘tiling ceremony’ to mark the the laying of the first of 190,000 pool tiles.
The centre has a 50-metre Olympic-sized pool, a 25-metre diving pool and a community swimming pool. Some 3,000 m3 of concrete were used in the pools’ construction.
Wates Construction started work on site in September 2019. So far, it has completed the external structure and roof of the site, which included installing 14 steel trusses, each spanning 75 metres and weighing around 30 tonnes. The team has also installed the 10-metre dive tower earlier in the year and recent work has included the completion of the building facades. Internally, high-level works within the pool hall have been taking place, including lighting, fire alarm cabling and ventilation and heating duct work.
Other facilities at the aquatics centre will include gyms, fitness studios, two sports halls and an indoor football pitch.
The project is on schedule and set to complete in spring 2022.
Wates Construction regional managing director John Carlin said: “Now tiles are going in, you can start to see properly how the facility will look once it’s completed, and ensuring all 190,000 are laid perfectly is the latest in a long line of technically complex features which we’ve delivered as part of this ambitious build.”
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