Agenda item

A progress update relating to the refurbishment of Coral Reef will be presented.

The Head of Performance & Resources (Environment, Culture & Communities) delivered a presentation and made the following points:

·         Site mobilisation had started on 16 May 2016 and the contract was currently on time and within budget.

·         The budget pressure had been reduced by circa £226k via secondments and there had been cost avoidance of £25k through reduced redundancies.

·         The scheduled completion date was 18 August 2017.

·         Current construction work included: complete drainage diversion works to the rear of the site, demolition of the splash pool enclosure and walls. Commencement of first fix mechanical and electrical works to the new Reception area. Excavation had begun for the new flume tower basement. First fix plumbing to toilet areas. Commencement of replacement ceiling to Coconut Grove.

·         The next phase of work would include: starting to remove the main pool roof, construction of ground floor flume tower, flume manufacturing, commencement of reception area and entrance ceilings, changing Village ceiling work and constructing the foundations for the new splash pool area. 

The Panel made the following points:

·         The water in the main swimming pool had not been removed as the water helped to retain the structure of the swimming pool surround.

·         Members expressed concern that large articulated lorries were using the Bagshot Road junction to reverse on to the site and creating traffic/safety issues. The Head of Performance stated that he was not aware of this and would look into it.

·         The Panel agreed that they would like to see a regular update on the project plan for this work. The Chairman suggested that this become a standing item on the agenda for Panel meetings. Members were particularly interested to see progress towards the completion date, the project plan document and that the site would be cleared after work was completed.

·         The Director reported that the project had now reached an interesting phase, all the strip out work had now been completed. The roof had been badly designed originally and this would be rectified.

·         Members queried why the roof survey carried out by Atkins had not identified that the roof needed maintenance work. The Director stated that this was as a result of the limitations of the survey work. The survey did not carry out any invasive work as the facility was still open to the public at that time. In addition, scaffolding was needed to access some parts of the roof and other parts of the roof could only be accessed through the saunas, as a result the extent of the poor condition of the roof had not been identified by the initial survey work carried out by Atkins.

·         The Head of Performance reported that there were some complexities around ensuring that the Dutch manufactured flumes fitted within the flume tower and ensuring these two elements integrated but that he hoped that this would not delay the completion date.

·         The Head of Performance reported that he was working with the Communications team to ensure the project was publicised and that a short video clip was being worked on for the BBC website.

·         The Head of Performance reported that there was a significant amount of design work within the project. As the flumes would be transported from Holland a great deal of work had been based on computer images.

·         The Head of Performance confirmed that the risk register for the project currently contained 45 risks and one of these was red.