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The visual excitement of the city of Albuquerque's latest aquatic center is not outside. It's inside, where a pit deep and spacious enough to house airplanes awes the visitor.
The pit, currently occupied only by air, has been dug to house an Olympic-sized pool that will boast several "smart" features. A portion of the pool's floor will raise or lower. Side walls will shift in or out. The pool will be able to accommodate diving, competition racing, water polo games, aquatic exercise for the middle aged and even people in wheelchairs.
A digital panel, informed by sensors, will automatically announce the pool's depth so that children stay in shallow areas and divers go deep.
The current cement shortage has slowed the construction activity. On a morning workday in late September, only two welders on a roof beam of the low, 242-ft.-long building sent down a single shower of sparks and a few men worked on finishing the row of concrete bleacher seats (seating capacity: 900) on one side of the 178-ft.-long pool.
The concrete shortage is being blamed on the building boom in China and import taxes on Mexican cement.
"We started January '05 and were supposed to finish January '06," said Mike Brogdon, president of Albuquerque-based KL House Construction Co. Inc. "But I've had nothing but hell with cement on all of my jobs.
"We could be pouring several hundred yds. a day, but we're barely getting 50 yds. a week."
He said the cement work should have been completed by the end of September, with the tile already going in, but delays have forced back completion dates from January to February and perhaps later.
"The cement shortage slowed us down a bit, but I'm not sure we can hold the contractor responsible for things beyond his control," said city architect George Gee.
Delayed or not, the pool is expected to be one of the most unusual projects in New Mexico.
"It's quite an amazing system," said lead architect Doug Majewski of Albuquerque-based Hartman and Majewski Design Group. He said that a 45-ft. moveable floor will raise and lower hydraulically. A "skirt" at the upward-moving structure's end maintains contact with the pool's Gunite floor so that no swimmer can be trapped under the structure when it is raised.
The moveable floor is probably the first in New Mexico, according to pool subcontractor Steve Craft, president and owner of Albuquerque-based Westcon Construction Inc.
The 35-year-old company specializes in building large pools, with $10 million business yearly in Albuquerque, El Paso and southern Colorado.
Craft estimated that the project required 1,000 yds. of cement and roughly 35 tons of steel, with a combination of metals, planking and resins to form a nonslip surface for the moveable floor.
The floor is built with tiny chambers that allow water to flow through it, minimizing problems for the four hydraulic motors that will raise and lower it.
To change the size of the pool laterally, two moveable bulkheads made of fiberglass can be set in place. Shorter distances are suitable for water polo. The fiberglass is rigid enough and, when filled with water, heavy enough to let swimmers do kick-turns off it.
The pool will hold one million gallons of water and will be 14 ft. deep at one end and 7 ft. at its shallowest point.
Storage areas are available beneath the bleachers, and bathrooms include a changing area for parents with young children.
The building's exterior is cylindrical because, "the city wanted to move away from building boxes," Gee said.
The extra expense of the membrane-covered roof was made up for in the lesser amount of materials a box shape would have required on the side walls, as well as the standard roofing costs of gypsum boards, three-ply felt and 90-lb., granulated cap sheet.
Gee added that the roof is also more reflective of sunlight, always a consideration in the Southwest.
An overabundance of sunlight also caused a late redesign in walls initially intended for glass. The walls are now packed with insulation and are being covered with stucco to reduce glare.
Six large filtering machines will cleanse the pool.
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