Water palaver for divers called in to fix Telford pool
Deep-pool divers were submerged in water underground for hours at a pool in Telford after a fault with its mechanical floor forced it to close for days.
The swimming pool at the Abraham Darby Sports & Leisure Centre, in Madeley, reopened to swimmers yesterday morning after it was shut all day Tuesday and Wednesday because of a problem with the pool's moveable floor.
Swimmers were able to return for the adult early morning session at 6.30am yesterday thanks to a team of four divers from a specialist company contracted by the council through its business innovation team.
Armed with wet suits, oxygen tanks and masks, the divers were joined by an engineer to lift up floor panels and drop down into dark holes of water to replace a cable that had snapped and left the pool floor inoperable.
After discovering the fault at the beginning of the week, staff ordered the replacement cable which was then installed on Wednesday afternoon, taking about two hours.
Niamh Whitehead, Telford & Wrekin Council communications officer, said: "The floor of the pool can be raised and lowered to make it deeper and shallower which is done so by a number of cables.
"Unfortunately one of these cables that controls the movement snapped under the surface, meaning the floor was jammed and wouldn't move.
"We had a team of divers and an engineer out on Wednesday who firstly had to establish if the problem was what we suspected, and then dive under the floor and replace the cable.
"It took about two hours to repair, but further delays were caused due to waiting for the new cable to be delivered."
"We'd like to thank everyone for their patience while the pool floor was undergoing repairs."
The sports and leisure centre is open from 6.30am to 10pm today, and 7am to 8pm over the weekend.
