Four options identified for upgrade of Marton Swim Centre

The Rangitīkei District Council says the Marton Swim Centre upgrade could cost up to $12 million if it chooses a long-term option provided by an engineer's report. Photo / Rangitīkei District Council

An engineer’s report has proposed four options for the future of the Marton Swim Centre.

In August, structural damage to a beam caused a partial collapse of the centre’s roof. Rangitīkei District Council decided to close the facility for the 2024/25 summer season and look at options for upgrading it.

It is the only Olympic-sized pool in the Whanganui/Rangitīkei area.

An assessment report was presented at the council’s meeting on March 27.

Chief operating officer Arno Benadie revealed the four “high-level” options, including two short-term “quick fixes”, a medium-term future option, and a long-term option.

The cheapest option is a quick fix to return the facility to the condition it was in before the partial failure of the laminated beam in August.

A “base recommendation” is to strengthen the facility to 67% of the New Building Standard, replace the roof and all laminated beams, install new HVAC and heating systems, an improved fire safety system, and replace the pool pipework.

The third option is, in addition to the base recommendation, to complete extensive renewals over the next two to five years, including updating the main switchboards, replacing the changing rooms’ roof, changing the DE filtration to a sand filtration system and improving accessibility.

The long-term option is to use key aspects of the existing facility and enhance it to reinstate a 50-year vision. That would involve reconfiguring the 50m pool into a 25m lap pool and adding three warm water pools.

The Marton Swim Centre suffered a partial roof collapse in August 2024. Photo / Rangitīkei District Council

Benadie said the options ranged in cost from less than $1 million to about $12m.

Rangitīkei Deputy Mayor Dave Wilson said the priority was to keep the pool open in the future, despite the uncertainty about its availability next summer.

“The council staff have followed exactly what the council recommendation was at the time and that was to close the pool to take a more holistic view of it and we shouldn’t lose sight of it,” Wilson said.

“The initial stage of this report has achieved exactly that for us. I’m certainly looking forward to moving on to the next stages of this and breaking it down, hopefully, into bite-size pieces.”

Mayor Andy Watson agreed but wanted to manage expectations.

“That’s where we are trying to head to and I am pushing very hard to get into that position. However, until we receive decisions around where we need to go with this and decisions around how it could be potentially funded, we wait,” Watson said.

“There is a number of moving parts in this, but that is the desire.”

Funding avenues would be explored in the coming months.

A public workshop will be held on April 10 with elected members and contracted engineers to go over the options in more detail, with a decision to be made at a later date.