The builder of the National Aquatic Centre has claimed it was refused entry to the building yesterday afternoon when it sought to investigate reports that water has been leaking from cracks in the swimming pool.
Construction group Rohcon said it was significant that media reports about the alleged leaks emerged at a time when the operating company, Dublin Waterworld, was fighting legal proceedings for "poor maintenance of the building" among other issues.
The action against Dublin Waterworld is being taken by Campus & Stadium Ireland Developments Ltd (CSID), the State company which owns the centre. Dublin Waterworld will argue in court that CSID provided a defective building which could not be run properly.
Rohcon said it had been refused access when it took a senior team along with architects S&P and the engineering firm URS to the building at Abbotstown, west Dublin.
In its first public statement since reports suggested water was leaking "like a sieve" from the pool, the firm said it had dealt with any issues that had arisen during the 'snagging' process after the completion of the building. "It is most unusual that one partner in a consortium would report defects to the media without giving the other partner the opportunity to deal with these issues."
The statement was issued some hours after RTÉ reported that a study for Dublin Waterworld by engineers Malachy Walsh & Partners had warned that the swimming pools in the centre could be losing so much water that it would cause the entire building to subside.
"Rohcon has no knowledge of, or any involvement in, the Malachy Walsh report . . . We have formally requested CSID to make arrangements to allow us to inspect the building. We will remedy any latent defects that are our responsibility."
The Malachy Walsh report said that a multi-million euro repair job carried out on the centre after a New Year's Day storm may not comply with building standards. Engineers would need to spend three months to discover the centre's full list of faults, it said, adding that it found 126 vertical cracks "of various descriptions".
Nineteen cracks were leaking; 30 had been repaired but were still leaking, 15 were repaired and not leaking, 13 had not been repaired but were not leaking, while there were 26 hairline cracks that were not leaking.
"There are a further six horizontal cracks at construction joints that have been repaired but have continued to leak. Some of these are over significant length of wall," said the report.
"This level of cracking and leaking of water is unacceptable. These tanks are water-retaining structures and should not leak. The reason or reasons for this cracking is unknown at this stage."
The leakage of water from the pools "raises two very serious concerns," including the possible subsidence of the entire building.
"The second is that the flow of chlorinated water through a reinforced concrete wall can result in corrosion of the reinforcing steel within the wall which will result in very significant long term problems for the structure.
"This whole situation needs to be investigated in detail, to establish the exact causes and extent of the unexplained losses," said the report.
However, Rohcon said it provided a report on June 21st stating that all known defects were remedied.
"That is still our position in the absence of being able to inspect the building."