Regional award for Southend Swimming and Diving Centre!
Iconic Southend Swimming and Diving Centre has just won a top trophy for its technical achievements.
The Centre, at Garon Park, off Eastern Avenue, Southend, beat off tough competition to be named the Best Technical Design and Construction 2011, in the Local Authority Building Control (LABC) East Anglia’s Building Excellence Awards.
This sought-after regional accolade was presented by BBC London’s weather girl, Wendy Hurrell, in an Oscar-style ceremony at Stoke by Nayland Hotel on the Essex/Suffolk border.
These LABC Building Excellence awards recognise individuals, organisations, or schemes that have devised interesting methods of complying with Building Regulations via new designs or technological innovation.
The judges looked for new or unusual ways to overcome construction challenges. They said of the winning Centre: “Constructed on a restricted complex, this building had to overcome significant site, budget and operational constraints to achieve a first class diving facility.”
The design and construction team had to come up with solutions to a wide range of construction issues.
These included:
· Anchoring the pool basin construction to the surrounding ground to resist upward pressure due to the high level of ground water.
· Constructing the dive tower off site and bringing it in as a complete structure
· Reinforcing the end of the pool to withstand the weight of the dive tower
· Carefully designing the side of the pool at the end to withstand the weight of the diving platform
· Managing the building work in a contained area in between the existing Leisure and Tennis Centre, and the boundary.
· Devising a new entrance to bring together the Swimming and Diving Centre, and the Leisure and Tennis Centre
Southend-on-Sea Borough Council’s Executive Councillor for Culture and Tourism, Councillor Derek Jarvis said: “This award is a terrific achievement and very well deserved by all involved. Southend Swimming and Diving Centre is a comprehensive and innovative high profile development. It is designed to be used and enjoyed by the community and also for Olympic training.
“The successful delivery of this inspirational project reflects the ambition, vision enthusiasm and drive of the whole project team. Their skills and close teamwork helped them to meet all the technical challenges admirably.”
