Sports and Aquatic

Project Details

For a number of years, the Linwood/Woolston community had campaigned for an aquatic facility in the area. With the community’s support, Christchurch City Council set out to establish a 2260m² aquatic centre with a range of other sporting and community spaces that would serve as a community hub for the area.

Sourced under a design and build model, Apollo’s expertise allowed us to work alongside Christchurch City Council to identify considerable cost savings and maintain alignment with the project budget.

The $22 million complex features a multi-use 25-metre lane pool, a deep-water manu (“bombs”) pool, spa pool, learn-to-swim pool and a toddler pool. A kitchen and community rooms connect to an outdoor gathering area, along with multi-use and tennis courts, cycle stands and car parking.

Adapting the front-end design required significant innovation and out-of-the-box thinking. Despite reducing contract costs, the team managed to preserve all the inclusions that were important to stakeholders. The project was not only completed within budget but also finished two months ahead of schedule. An amazing outcome given the construction environment at the time, which included the impacts of COVID.

In a ceremony marking the facility’s opening Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel praised the result. “Despite the additional complications posed by COVID, we are celebrating the success of a project being delivered within budget and ahead of time. Now, I have to say as a former cabinet minister and as the mayor of Christchurch, I love those words more than just about anything else “within budget” and “ahead of time”. And congratulations to the team that has made that possible.”