About 770,000 gallons of water will be drained from the Recreation Center pool starting July 3. 

The pool will be closed for three months as work and maintenance will continue through the summer, according to Todd Welscott, assistant director for facility and aquatic operations.

“The primary purpose of the project is to remove and re-coat the pool shell’s marcite finish, which will first require the draining of the pool,” Welscott said. “While the pool shell is drained, we will be doing a few other small repairs to tile and the bulkheads.”

Draining the pool will take three days, and the water will be drained into a sanitary sewer.

In addition, the spiral staircase leading to the pool’s diving platform will be replaced with a standard model that will span from the three-meter springboard diving tower to the five-meter platform tower, Welscott said.

“Discussion about the project first started approximately three years ago, with serious exploration starting over two years ago,” said Director of Campus Recreation, Greg Jordan.

Welscott said finding a convenient time for the long project was a challenge.

“We had originally anticipated doing this project last summer but determined we needed a larger window of time than we had allocated, so it got pushed back a year,” Welscott said. “We selected a time of year that would have the least amount of impact on all user groups of the Aquatic Center.”

Welscott said the swim team will be moving practice venues to the Avondale High School Aquatic Center, because there aren’t any pools large enough for the team to properly train.

Members and students wishing to swim recreationally will need to find alternative venues for swimming on their own.

The project will last all summer, with the Aquatic Center reopening to students and members on September 30.