Eagle Pool: Town and Mountain Rec Secure Funding for Water Slides, Address Soil Challenges

Eagle, CO – Construction efforts of the new Eagle pool are in full swing, with teams making significant progress to keep the project on schedule for a Memorial Day weekend 2025 grand opening.

In an exciting development, the town of Eagle and Mountain Recreation secured funding in July for not one, but two water slides. What does this mean? The new pool will feature nearly double the water surface area with a leisure pool and lazy river, a separate six-lane lap pool and two water slides!

With funding for the dual slides secured, the town and Mountain Rec are now researching additional funding sources to deliver the community-requested shade structures and water play features identified in their December 2023 survey.

The town and Mountain Rec are excited to share that since kicking off construction of the new Eagle Pool in May, crews have:

• completed demolition of the old pool including infrastructure, pool deck, and water slide,
• cleared and prepped the site, including grading to begin the compaction grout column process, and
• started to install a total of over 260 compaction grout columns to mitigate soil challenges

To ensure the new pool’s longevity, the town and Mountain Rec have paid special attention to addressing the hydro collapsible soils in the area. By working with soil engineers, a geotechnical study was completed allowing teams to understand soil quality across the site and properly anticipate future settling.

Thanks to the study, crews have been working in July to install over 260 compaction grout columns throughout the new pool’s footprint to mitigate the potential for future settling. Compaction grouting improves ground conditions by volumetric displacement. A very viscous (low-mobility), aggregate grout is pumped in stages to displace and densify the surrounding soils – ultimately supporting the pool’s infrastructure.

Each column is dug at depths of up to 44 feet, allowing crews to complete 8 to 12 columns per day. Furthermore, in July, crews discovered additional subsurface challenges along the north corner of the facility, which will require another group of compaction grout columns before the building addition foundation work can begin.

As of August 1, crews have installed 158 columns and are expected to complete the process later this month.

In August, crews will also begin the excavation of the new pool’s footprint, and the foundation work for the building addition that will house new family changing areas.

Parking at the Eagle Pool & Ice Rink will continue to be limited throughout the construction project, but the town and Mountain Rec are working to ensure safe facility access for the upcoming 2024-2025 ice rink season. The Eagle Ice Rink is expected to open in late September and will offer its regular programming with no expected impact from construction efforts.

In anticipation of the Eagle Pool grand opening and lifeguarding needs to maximize pool hours and offerings, Mountain Rec has started to schedule additional lifeguard certification courses which will be held at the Gypsum Recreation Center pool. Upon successful completion participants will become American Red Cross certified lifeguards, which includes First Aid/CPR and AED training. The next available courses start on August 7 and August 13 for ages 15 and older. To register visit MountainRec.org.

Visit MountainRec.org/Eagle-Pool, to view the most up to date information, including a project timeline, final designs, a list of FAQs, and submit feedback.