Wow!
Not much more to say about Cochrane’s under-construction aquatic/curling facility down at Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre.
A year into construction, the 150,000-square-foot facility being tacked on to the existing rec centre, is beginning to take shape and is starting to show how monumental it’s going to be when finished.
“Heck, yeah!” Mayor Ivan Brooker exclaimed following a comprehensive tour of the facility that showed spaces for the curling facility (it will have six full sheets and three short sheets), the swimming area (25-metre lap tank, warm-water therapy pool and water park area), the large exercise area and all the spacious common areas, meeting spaces and change-room areas planned for the expansion.
The Feb. 29 tour included a ladder-climb to the roof to see the unique thermal energy plant in a box (TIAB), which had just been installed. The only one of its kind in Canada, the heating-cooling unit is contained to a compact, standalone space.
“This is the very first one in Canada. The heating and cooling all comes through this unit,” says project manager Gillan Carruthers of the TIAB. “This unit represents about 55 tons of mechanical equipment that on many other facilities would be positioned and spread out. The whole idea of having this heat-transfer system in an offsite, prefabricated unit is so that it creates a nice neat environment for maintenance staff to manage this once the facility is up and running.”
Being on the roof, it’s something most facility users will not see.
“That was one of the things everybody was always referencing to and talking about,” Brooker said of the high-tech elements in the new facility. “Making this facility so that it was a cost-saver as opposed to the old facility which is an energy hog.”
As for the part of the centre people will see, and use, it’s showing significant stages of completion.
“In the distance, where you can see the excavators, just to give you a bit of an idea of the outside; the parking area has already been graded,” Carruthers said, gesturing to the south side of the construction site. “That will be paved this summer, which will wrap right around the building.”
