Work steps up a gear on aquatics centre for Games
It will play a part in Black Country sporting history at the Commonwealth Games 2022 and work on the Sandwell Aquatics Centre is forging ahead in the new year.
The centre is set to be completed in spring 2022 ready to be used for swimming and diving in the Birmingham 2022 event.
And it is hoped the facility, off Londonderry Lane in Smethwick, will put Sandwell on the map through the popular events.
The building will be then officially open for use by the public in May 2023 – and will help create a “lasting legacy” of the Commonwealth Games, which will be staged between July 27 and August 7, 2022.
It is the only new venue being built for the event and it will feature a 50m Olympic-sized swimming pool as well as a 25m diving pool, community swimming pool and seats for up to 1,000 spectators.
The building will be officially open for use by the public in May 2023.
Sandwell Council’s deputy leader Maria Crompton said the facility was proceeding on schedule and it would be a great asset for decades to come alongside the Midland Metropolitan Hospital in the borough.
Members of safer neighbourhoods and active communities scrutiny board were told last month work on the Aquatic Centre had briefly stopped so safety measures could be put in place for workers.
Chiefs said they had been working for a long time to improve swimming facilities across Sandwell – with new centres in Wednesbury, Tipton and West Bromwich over the past five years, plus Portway Lifestyle Centre, Oldbury, which includes a hydrotherapy pool.
The new centre in Smethwick will be run by Sandwell Leisure Trust (SLT).
