What London's largest pool looks like when its 3 million litres of water is drained
CBC
Have you ever wondered what the pool at the Canada Games Aquatic Centre looks like when its drained? CBC London stopped by this week as crews did their annual deep clean.
The maintenance and cleaning typically takes about three weeks, but an extra week was added this year because of significant work on the pool's movable floor.
"Once the water is drained, which takes about 12 to 15 hours, then we'll get in and do some necessary regrouting of tile work. We'll do some repairs and maintenance to the filter system and then we get in and actually physically power wash the pool and give it buff up," said Scott Preece, the manager of recreation operations at the City of London.
The pool, located at 1045 Wonderland Road North, is home to London's Olympic-sized pool, which also has one to 10 metre high diving boards. The pool holds almost more than three-million litres of water when it's full.
"Our staff do a pretty good job day-to-day on maintaining the hairballs and those kinds of things that happen when you have a pool running under the movable floor because it does go up and down," said Lisa Brandie, the manager of aquatic programs and leadership at the City of London.
"We'll find some of our toys that have somehow found their way under there. So we get those back once a year."
The aquatics centre offers recreational swims, lane swims, aquafit classes, swim lessons and aquatic leadership programs. It's also home to high school swim programs.
The pool cleaning and maintenance is expected to wrap up after next week. Regular scheduling resumes on Monday, Sept. 14.
LISTEN: Draining London's largest pool for its annual cleaning and maintenance:
Sharing with those less fortunate than yourself is a common theme during the Christmas season — but for Fred and Elyse Maindonald, it's more than just a holiday sentiment.
Whether you’re taking transit to visit loved ones, watching Die Hard in theatres or lacing up a pair of ice skates, you’ll want to know what’s open and closed this holiday season.
For the next two weeks, some services around Waterloo region and Guelph will be closed or have altered hours because of the statutory holidays.
Yellowknife's Explorer Hotel was left with extensive damage after a vehicle crashed into the hotel's lobby late in the day on Christmas Eve.
With the final days of 2025 rapidly falling to the wayside, Canadians are likely taking stock of the last 12 months.
A new study finds that more than half of the most dangerous winter roads in Canada are in Ontario, with weather, wildlife, and urban factors contributing to collisions.
Welcome to everyone's least favourite time of year for air travel.
For some, the holiday season means packing their bags to spend time with loved ones, some of whom are half a world away.
The IWK is urging people in the Maritimes to get vaccinated for the flu after reporting a big increase in the number of children coming to emergency rooms with flu-like symptoms.
J.D. Irving has secured an agreement to sell power from the large wind farm it's building in western New Brunswick to N.B. Power.
One of the most influential voices advocating for Quebec's Lower North Shore region has fallen silent. Randy Jones, a political figure and ardent defender of his region, has died. He was 69.
Some health-care leaders are questioning how Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew can confidently declare his government will end long waits for health-care services by the end of 2026.
The Carlyle Observer, a small-town weekly newspaper, has folded after nearly 90 years in operation.