Among the challenges faced by the team during construction of the West Irving Aquatic Center, which includes a lap pool, waterslides, liesure pool and children’s wading pool, was extremely cold weather.
Although not known for ice and snow, Irving had more than its share of rain, snow and ice, causing 78 weather days on the project during the construction period. The wet weather made the soil too unstable to allow construction traffic back in the area, slowing the work restart. The cold caused delays for the pool piping, at times holding up the pool contractor for hours as the temperature warmed up enough for gluing.
The center’s site was a compromise from the original plans due to neighborhood development issues. The location had its challenges, as it was bisected by a deep creek on the east, residential homes to the north and a renovation of an existing building on the west. This limited where the facility could go, and meant dealing with some challenging topography.
The solution was two-fold. First, the parking lot was located on the floodplain side of the creek, connecting to the aquatic center via a 90-ft-long pedestrian bridge. Second, the aquatic center was carefully terraced into the hill.
Key Players
Submitted by: EMJ Corp.
Owner/developer: City of Irving, Irving, Texas
General contractor: EMJ Corp., Dallas
Architect: Brinkley Sargent Architects, Dallas
Civil engineer: URS Corp., Dallas
Structural engineer: Structural Engenuity, Dallas
Mechanical engineer: Richardson Mechanical Inc., Garland, Texas
Electrical engineer: JMEG LP, Dallas
Plumbing engineer: CBS Mechanical Inc., Denton, Texas
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