MANCHESTER, NH – After a soggier than usual spring, the city is hoping for a reprieve from the kind of rains that have delayed several construction projects, including the replacement of the liner at Livingston public swimming pool.
“We have been replacing the liner and were scheduled to open soon but the rain this spring has been trouble,” said Deputy Public Works Directory Owen Friend-Gray on Monday.
Mark Gomez, the city’s Chief of Parks and Recreation, said the current estimate is that Livingston will be ready to open prior to the July 4th weekend. An update will be issued sometime next week.
The capacity of Livingston pool is 350,000 gallons and roughly 1,000 square feet. This is the first resurfacing the pool has undergone in its 21-year lifespan. The new liner installation should last an additional 20 years, Gomez said.
According to Brendan Lynch, the city’s Recreation and Enterprise manager, the scope of the project included draining the pool, cleaning the surface and patching it as needed. Metal plates are then welded onto the sides of the pool to give the liner a proper “termination point” before installing the new liner using a hot air welding technique.
Above:Liner replacement in progress. Photos/City Parks and Rec.
“There were two significant challenges during the installation process. The first being that this area of Livingston Park has a high water table. This means that the ground water pressure is so high, it could physically lift the pool out of the ground once it is drained. We were able to mitigate this challenge by constantly pumping water out of the installed monitoring well, ensuring there is as little ground water beneath the pool as possible,” Lynchg said.
“The second challenge during this installation process was the weather. First, the liner installation cannot begin until there is an ambient temperature of 50 degrees, meaning we could not begin the installation process until May. Furthermore, the liner cannot be adhered while it is raining. Due to the near-record rainfall during the months of May and early June, this project was unfortunately delayed by several weeks,” Lynch said.
The total cost of the project was $272,058.
In 2018 the Dupont Splash Pad opened, replacing the aging Dupont swimming pool on the city’s West Side. The Hunt Memorial Pool, built in 1959, was permanently closed in 2021 after a pipe critical to the filtration system failed due to age and corrosion.
You can find relief from the heat wave at the following city pools and splash pads (click here for public swimming hours):
- Crystal Lake – 679 Bodwell Rd Manchester, NH 03109
- Dupont Splash Pad – 207 Mason St Manchester, NH 03102
- Sheehan Basquil Splash Pad – 297 Maple St Manchester, NH 03103
- Raco-Theodore Pool – 66 Head St Manchester, NH 03102