Relocation of Markievicz Pool for Metrolink to cost up to €48m

The relocation of a public swimming pool in Dublin city centre, due to be demolished to make way for the Metrolink rail line, is expected to cost up to €48 million, according to Dublin City Council.

The Markievicz Leisure Centre, located below the College Gate apartment complex on Townsend Street, has since 2018 been earmarked for demolition to make way for the underground rail line and station close to Tara Street.

The pool was refurbished by the council in 2016 at a cost of more than €1 million. In October 2018 the council wrote to the National Transport Authority (NTA) asking it to reconsider its demolition plans. However, the NTA responded that the site was required to connect Metrolink to the Dart network at Tara Street.

The council has since been seeking a new site for the pool and commissioned a feasibility study to look at alternative locations in the area. However, councillors have been told no site is available in the city centre and instead the council intends to construct a new pool and leisure centre at Irishtown Stadium in Ringsend, more than 2.5km away.

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“The study examined potential sites capable of facilitating the expanded facilities and recommended Irishtown Stadium as the ideal location for the development of a modern sports hub facility within the south city,” the council’s senior executive officer Donncha Ó Dúlaing said. “No other sites in public ownership of an appropriate size and the correct zoning were identified in the southeast area. Irishtown Stadium was identified as the only suitable location and provided a significant opportunity for enhanced facilities.”

The new pool would require demolition of the oldest part of the existing stadium building, but the athletic club buildings, four of the five all-weather training pitches and the full size all-weather pitch would be retained.

The new facilities, built over three floors, would include a six-lane 25m pool, a leisure/play pool, gym, squash courts, café, and five roof top all-weather pitches for football, tennis or basketball. There may also be a range of “unconventional sports”, Mr Ó Dúlaing said, such as skateboarding, parkour – a type of obstacle course training – and bouldering, a wall-climbing sport.

The cost of the new facility “could be anywhere from €40 million up to €48 million”, he said, with a midpoint at €44.5 million. The council was in discussions with Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), which is responsible for the planning of the Metrolink, in relation to the procurement of a new leisure centre, “including compensation and reinstatement costs”, Mr Ó Dúlaing said. It was expected “the majority or a very significant contribution to the costs would come from TII”.

A similar pool relocation project in Coolock, with the planned closure of the Northside shopping centre rooftop pool, was last month estimated by the council to cost €10 million.

A planning application for the Metrolink line from Swords and Dublin Airport to the city was submitted to An Bord Pleanála last September. If the project gets the green light construction is due to get under way in 2025, with completion between 2031-2036.

However, the council is likely to begin the development of the Irishtown pool significantly ahead of that date, with a design team due to be appointed this year, planning to be completed next year and construction due to finish in 2026, even though the council would not have the money for the project if Metrolink does not go ahead, Mr Ó Dúlaing said.

A spokesman for TII said it was working with the council to “provide any assistance that is needed in developing a plan in principle that seeks to relocate the existing pool and the associated facilities in a suitable alternative location in advance of the commencement of construction for Metrolink”.