The next phase has been reached in the construction of the Aquatics Centre at Aberdeen Sports Village, the North East of Scotland’s premier sports facility, with the arrival of its Olympic standard diving boards.
The delivery of the 40 tonne 3, 5,7.5 and 10 metre boards, which includes a 10 lane 50 metre pool and a 25 metre pool with full elite diving facilities, is on schedule for opening in early 2014.
David Beattie, chief executive at Aberdeen Sports Village said: “The arrival of the boards marks a significant development to the interior of the building and highlights the progress being made at the Centre.
“At Aberdeen Sports Village, we are dedicated to ensuring everyone is free to enjoy sport at every level, so we are thrilled to be able to provide a facility that will offer high quality swimming and diving facilities to both members of the local community and top quality athletes.
“The boards will mean everyone from world-class divers, training for future Olympics and Commonwealth events, to children from local schools learning to dive for the first time will be able to use and benefit from the facilities.
“The Aquatics Centre will be one of only two Olympic standard facilities in Scotland, making it a real asset to the people of Aberdeen and the North east.”
Aberdeen’s Commonwealth champion and three-time Olympian David Carry believes the Aquatics Centre will be an amazing asset to the North East and go towards developing an impressive pool of talent in the region. Despite having retired from competitive swimming, he looks forward to helping others achieve what they want to achieve in the sport and will use his experiences to inspire the next generation of Scots in the pool – believing the Aquatics centre to be an ideal facility to help do just that.
Main contractor GRAHAM Construction is leading the construction of the £22 million project.
Eddie Higgins, project manager at GRAHAM Construction, said: “The design, manufacture, delivery and installation of the diving boards proved a real challenge and required special heavy haulage vehicles for each individual board, and a 500 tonne crane to install the platforms.
“After successfully completing the integrity testing of the pool, erecting the steelworks and now having the diving boards on site in only six months, we are on schedule for the next phase which is to ensure the building is wind and water tight.
“Once this is complete by early April, the public will really start to get a sense of how the finished Aquatics Centre will look.”
The Aquatics Centre is a joint project between the University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen City Council and sportscotland.
Nick Dalgarno, ASV board members and chair of Aquatics Centre sub group said: “The building of the Aquatics Centre opens up a wealth of sporting opportunities that have not before existed in the region – with the nearest 10 meter diving board being two and a half hours away in Edinburgh. At present, no University in the UK possesses an Olympic standard pool, so once the Centre has opened, everyone will benefit from what Aberdeen can offer, and the level of talent it will attract.”
At the end of last year, Aberdeen Sports Village welcomed its two millionth visitor, signifying the impressive year the facility had in 2012.