Special Projects (UT Austin Aquatic Center) Gallery

The Ozadi Stonecraft team was contracted to take on a unique and challenging project for the University of Texas at Austin. The UT Austin Aquatic Center needed to replace their antiquated motorized pool barriers with more modern equipment. In order to accomplish this, the original pool barriers had to be removed.

Taking out the existing barriers involved completely emptying the pool. Once the pool was dry, protective coverings were laid down to safeguard the tiling at the bottom and sides of the pool and scaffolding was put in place to hold the pool bulkhead barriers. Once this prep work was in place, the crew could move forward with dropping the bulkheads out of the ceiling (where they are stored via a heavy duty pully-and-cable system) and resting them on the scaffolding for demolition.

To successfully remove the bulkheads from the pool enclosure, the crew would have to cut them down into pieces that could physically fit through the standard-sized double exit doors. Also, the weight of the individual pieces had to be considered to avoid cracking the tile surface of the pool deck as the pieces were moved across it to the exit.

An additional challenge involved the motors that moved the bulkheads up and down the pully system. These needed to be taken apart and drained of all the onboard oil before they could be dismantled and removed.

Originally, the project called for blowtorches to cut through the 1/2"-3/4" inch thick aluminum panels and chop them down to size. Surprisingly, the aluminum alloy was completely resistant to being cut by blowtorch and the team switched to high-speed saws instead. Using saws turned-out to be much faster than anticipated and allowed the team to finish the project a week ahead of schedule!