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People living in the west end Rosenthal neighbourhood are excitedly waiting for the completion of the Lewis Farms Recreation Centre and surrounding park.
According to the city, the finish line is in sight and the rec centre is expected to begin operating in 2028.
Media were invited for a tour of the construction site on Tuesday. Once it’s finished, the facility just off Winterburn Road and 92 Avenue is expected to have several different recreational spaces.
It’ll include an aquatic centre with a 50-metre pool, leisure pool, hot tub, diving platforms and a water slide. There will also be a public library, a twin arena, an indoor playground and daycare, a fitness centre, running track and double gymnasium.
The Lewis Farms rec centre had a target cost of $311.3 million when it was approved by Edmonton city council in 2021, after the project was put on hold for 18 months during budget deliberations.
However, that year-and-a-half delay occurred in the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic when inflation drove up the cost of almost everything, including construction materials.
The city estimated the new cost of the rec centre, as it was planned, to then be $427 million.
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Changing the scope and size began in 2022 and those efforts carried on into 2025, as the city worked with industry partners to value-engineer and simplify design elements of the project down to an adjusted budget of $309.3 million.
The city decided to prioritize programming and daily public access for area residents over having a facility that could host specialized, high-performance sports competitions, which in the case of aquatics would have required a deeper pool and higher diving platforms than what is now being built.
As well, space inside was set aside for a future daycare and commercial retail units.
Councillors to approve a budget increase this spring and the city says its current estimated budget is roughly $343 million.
Katherine Ludwig has the full story in the video above.
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