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Opinion
Seven things that were completed faster than North Sydney Olympic Pool
Michael Koziol
Sydney editorIn the realm of local infrastructure projects, there are frequent cost blowouts, logistical difficulties and delays. And then there’s North Sydney Olympic Pool.
Mike Baird was premier, Tony Abbott was prime minister and Joe Hockey was treasurer when North Sydney Council went cap in hand to governments in February 2015 asking for $25 million to fund the redevelopment of the spectacular but ageing facility.
Slowly, slowly: Construction of North Sydney Olympic Pool in April 2023.Credit: James Brickwood
Councillors wanted to move fast, and gave the MPs just three weeks to write back. On the day the deadline was reached, they resolved to write to Baird again “immediately”, trying to cash in before the NSW election.
From then, however, things slowed down. In November 2017, the council passed a mayoral minute titled “Finally fix our pool”, setting the project in motion by committing to a design dubbed option two, for an estimated $28 million.
From there, the cost blew out to $58 million and then $89 million, and the ETA was pushed back from 2022 to 2023 and now April 2024, missing another summer. Along the way, it picked up $10 million from a federal grant fund for regional and remote pools, despite being next to the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
To be fair, the pool stayed open until February 2021, when construction commenced. If the revised timeline is met, it will have been 6.5 years from councillors voting on the design to the doors opening.
Here is a brief assortment of projects that have been completed in a shorter time:
RMS Titanic
The Titanic leaving Southampton on April 10, 1912.Credit: Southampton City
While it probably could have done with a few more checks and balances, the RMS Titanic took just three years to build. Construction began in 1909 and its fateful maiden voyage left Southampton in April 1912. Indeed, plans for the Titanic were hatched at a dinner with White Star Line chairman J. Bruce Ismay in 1907 – meaning that from go to woe, the Titanic was completed quicker than North Sydney Pool.
Sydney Monorail
The Sydney Monorail took four years to come to fruition from thought bubble to ribbon cutting.Credit: Tamara Dean
It was 1984 when then NSW premier Neville Wran announced a redevelopment of Darling Harbour that would include some kind of transport link to the CBD. In October of the following year, Laurie Brereton – the minister for public works – won cabinet approval for the monorail. The bicentenary was looming, and the race was on. The first public monorail ran on July 21, 1988: that’s four years from thought bubble to ribbon cutting.
Burj Khalifa
From excavation until opening night, it took six years for the Burj Khalifa to eventuate.Credit: iStock
The world’s tallest building stands an incredible 828 metres above the sands of Dubai and comprises 163 floors. The foundations alone required 45,000 cubic metres of concrete – 330,000 in total. Fitting out the tower’s interior was also a logistical “nightmare” and involved “a hell of a lot of problems”, according to the contractor’s chief executive. It was exactly six years from excavation until opening night – still faster than the North Sydney pool.
Golden Gate Bridge
The Golden Gate Bridge took a little over four years to build once construction started.Credit: iStock
San Francisco’s iconic bridge, 2.7 kilometres in length, was also hit by financial trouble (due to the Great Depression). But once the bonds were issued in 1932, things moved fast – at least relative to North Sydney Pool. Construction began early the following year and the bridge officially opened in May 1937. The American Society of Civil Engineers ranks the Golden Gate as one of the seven wonders of the modern world.
Marina Bay Sands
Marina Bay Sands was built in less than five years, from groundbreaking to ribbon cutting.Credit: Sorincolac
Singapore is an efficient city-state, and its epic resort/casino/hotel Marina Bay Sands is a prime example. Las Vegas Sands won the design competition in May 2006 and the complex was fully opened in February 2011 (and that included delays caused by the global financial crisis and rising labour costs). Indeed, parts of the building, including the 20-hectare resort, opened in 2010.
Channel Tunnel
The entrance to the Channel Tunnel in France.Credit: AP
All right, the pool can’t compete with the “Chunnel” for history and drama (it was first discussed in 1802). But once work actually started in 1988, it was six years from the first tunnelling to Queen Elizabeth II cutting the ribbon. That is – you guessed it – slightly faster than North Sydney Olympic Pool.
World War II
Soldiers in Australia during World War II during a bayonet drill.Credit: The Age
Commencing on September 1, 1939, and formally ending six years and two days later with the surrender of Japan, the Second World War was the deadliest military conflict in history.
Tens of millions of people died, and the war reshaped the geopolitics, economics and social structure of humanity. Nonetheless, it took place in less time than the redevelopment of North Sydney Olympic Pool.
North Sydney Mayor Zoe Baker, who was elected in January 2022, said the project’s woes were a result of the previous council and were “consistently pointed out by me during the process”.
“This new council has had to act to make certain that the pool project could be put back on track and was financially sustainable,” she said. “Unfortunately, that means the latest projection is it won’t be completed until April 2024.”
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