Life is better at the pool:
The Renovation of CCNY Swimming Pool
Introduction
When we think about pools, we often think about water and having a relaxing moment. However, as engineers, we often have other areas to focus on that come before relaxing at the pool. Engineers think about the construction process of the pool as well as the costs, benefits, and the action of creating the pool.
The City College of New York, located on 160 Convent Avenue New York, NY is home to a pool. As students attending CCNY, only 2 members in our group knew that a pool existed on our campus. The pool is located on the opposite side of where the entrance to the basketball courts is, connected by a tunnel leading towards it. The pool has been inactive ever since the year 2013 and undergoing construction to this day. Although having a renovated pool on campus is wonderful, it takes years of construction as well as a big budget to reconstruct the pool.
Many may question why we as a college should invest in the pool. According to ABC news a little girl named Virginia Graeme Baker who died after being pulled into a pool-drainage system. After the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool & Spa Safety Act was passed in 2007. This meant many pools in hotels and spas were ordered to install “to provide basic drain safety standards and layers of backup protection from dangerous drain suction.” This translated according to ABC news over 300,000 pools in the U.S were to place a larger cover in a round shape over the drainage system to prevent any type of suction that would drag little children to the bottom of the pool.
Action Plan
Constructing a swimming pool is not necessarily easy, rather it is a lengthy process and a mistake can cost you time and resources. For the site of this pool, we are going to start by removing out all the unnecessary structure and components that are not up to today’s code. The original structure contained damaged tile and there was a major problem with the drainage system. The whole maintenance vicinity was partially filled with excess chlorine due to long term closure. The system that was controlling the pool’s water supply followed by the power source was outdated and nonfunctional.
We will begin the construction by tearing down all the unnecessary framework along with designing of the new architecture. The run-downed tile will be removed first which will approximately take a month. Cleaning and emptying out the maintenance room will be the next thing taking a month or two. The design includes adding a curved ceiling above the pool, which will act as a way for ventilating, basically keeping the pool area chilled. This process will take at least 4 months. The procedure will be divided, as the ceiling work is in progress after the removal of the tiles, work for the major section will be held simultaneously. Then new tiles with a better design that lets it last longer against fungi which will take another 2 months. Getting rid of the dangerous drainage system and adding the new improved setup will take a month. Building a base network where all the units will be installed, which includes; two filter tanks, one surge tank, UV contact chamber, a heating chamber, a pH maintainer. This is the main part of the process of renovating the pool area. These components ensure the longevity of the pool so getting them into place is necessary for the pool to function. Plus other minor components such as LED depth indicator, diving boards, and cleaning robots need to be added. For swimmers to know the depth of their position the indicators will help a lot to reduce drowning accidents. The name states the purpose of the cleaning robots but, the question is why robots? The reason behind the robot, they will be more efficient by cleaning the floor of the pool, without emptying the pool.Water wastage will be reduced significantly because of the purifier integrated with the surge tank and cleaning robots. The surge tank is where the water will be held before relocating. The pH maintainer which will use bromine, in addition, an acid to balance out, also the UV chamber helping in the cleansing of the water. The previous setup used chlorine for cleansing. Placing all these technical components will take the bulk of the construction time; spanning to at least a couple months. For entertainment purposes, we will also add a slide around the deepest side of the pool at the end of the project.
Budget
An expensive project, if everything goes according to plan we will conclude within two years. Overall, it will cost 25 million dollars for all the advancement that will be done to the pool so that it lasts a lifetime. Team H2O is aiming to enhance the current state of work that is going on with the pool, which makes our project slight more expensive than usual. A majority of the budget comes from the demolition of the original pool and the construction of the new one. The original pool being rebuilt from the ground up is very costly and will most likely take up 15-20 million dollars of the actual budget. This includes tearing down the pool’s framework and designing a new architecture. The adding of new tanks, filters, and other items make up the last 5 million dollars. The addition of these items will keep the pool clean, they will prevent any future problems that the pool may face in the future. By investing now we can reduce future spending and focus the school’s money into different things that might need work.
The benefits of having a pool fixed can be seen almost immediately. The City College of New York has a very dedicated athletics department with a number of teams. However, for the past couple of years, the school has been missing all teams that involve the pool. By repairing the pool, the school can bring back or attract new teams to be formed to represent CCNY. Examples of teams that could represent the school are a swim team and a water polo team. The creation of new teams may attract future students who are passionate about their respective sport, apply and enter the CCNY family because of the pool. However, the pool does not have to be limited to only the school’s teams. Students who enjoy swimming, especially at the beginning of fall semesters when it is really hot, can dive into the pool and cool off. This allows the spread of a happier atmosphere on campus and can help build a stronger student community. The pool also adds more work-study opportunities for students who are certified, lifeguards. During the summer in between the end of the spring and beginning of fall semesters, the pool can be rented out to the community. This creates new forms of revenue that the school has never received before, and can lead to other investments around campus.
Experience
Team H2O consists of several members of different fields each qualified in our own respect for executing the project. For, example, our civil engineer, Syed Hussain can overlook the construction part of the project. By using CAD he can redesign how our renovated pool will look like and gives an idea as to what we can complete, remove, or add to the project. As he progresses further down the major, he can give us more detailed reports on the construction of the pool and better input in the project.
Brandon Medrano is another member of team H2O that can use his skill set in the construction of the pool. He is a computer science major with experience in using the computer language C++. He can use his coding skills to program the filters, lights, etc. in the pool to automatically activate so that employees don’t have to manually check the machines. His skills make the renovation of the pool substantially easier with the use of coding.
Mike Neri is an undergraduate at CCNY majoring in computer science. He has a year of Java experience and is currently working on his C++ skills. Although he works primarily with code and software developing he has been apart of amateur online gaming tournaments. Here he gained experience in team ethic. Being able to communicate clearly and effectively with teammates to achieve a high level of understanding. This can be applied to working with those who are in charge of constructing the pool. Communication is key.
Shakawat Hossain is majoring in Mechanical Engineering, though he does not have any hands on experience based on his major. Nevertheless, he has done business for a year which gave him the knowledge to work as a team. As a mechanical engineer, he could design and deal with the mechanical components in this project.
Conclusion
In 2013, the Jeremiah H. Mahoney Hall swimming pool at CCNY was closed for not having a drainage system up to code and an overdue rebuilding of the machine room. Since the time of this closure, many of those who relied on the pool had to relocate to locations further away. Without a pool for our own teams at CCNY or a local area pool for the community; it means having less aquatics and a more decentralized community. Constructing a swimming pool for the CCNY community is a step in improving our school’s recreational activities. With this proposal, we would be not only able to revive a pool in decommission for 6 years but offer more programs, hold more community events, boost student morale, get more opportunities to make money, and more.
By aiming to improve construction efforts in speed, efficiency, and adding new improvements to the past pool we can regain and further build on what once had. The action plan has laid out our plans for achieving this goal. The budgets help outline what exactly we will be spending in our action plan to not overspend or underspend. The construction will be finished by the end of the year with the proposal’s budget and action plan. The approval of this proposal will certainly boost our school’s reputation and provided much more programs for our students and the community around us.
Works Cited
Eslocker, Asa. “Parents of Kids Killed in Pool Drain Accidents Outraged By Federal Rethink of Safety Law.” ABC News, ABC News Network, 17 Apr. 2010, abcnews.go.com/Blotter/parents-children-killed-pool-drain-accidents-outraged-federal/story?id=10241722.’’
