Torrevieja Council has put out to tender a €134,000 contract, including VAT, to install a new air-conditioning duct at the Palacio de los Deportes indoor pool. The work will also improve ventilation in the boiler room. The council has separately paid €14,000 for the project design through a minor contract.

The urgent procurement follows the collapse of the previous metal duct on 14 May. It fell over the pool while the facility was open, affecting several lanes, although no users were injured. The incident forced the council to close the pool and bring forward the end of the heated-pool season.

The contract was approved at a council executive meeting on Monday. The works are expected to take three months, while the award process could take at least three weeks. As the pool is unlikely to reopen during construction, the facility may not be available again until November or December, rather than the usual early-September start to the season.

The replacement system will use textile ducting positioned outside the area above the water. The project report says the previous system suffered widespread deterioration, corrosion and dirt accumulation in the pool’s humid, chemically aggressive environment. It also says the old duct, installed in 2021, was difficult to inspect and that a partial repair was not suitable.