Building of Vantaa’s Elmo Swimming Hall about to begin

One of the City of Vantaa’s major projects, Elmo sports park, starts to make progress in the summer when building the long-desired swimming hall begins between Korso and Koivukylä, according to the City of Vantaa.

Based on the tenders submitted, NCC Suomi Oy was chosen as the project management contractor of the swimming hall.

“Elmo swimming hall is the first building project of the Elmo sports park, which was planned for year-round sports and physical exercise. We are glad to have the experienced NCC implement this service investment, which is very important to Vantaa. When completed, the swimming hall will be the biggest one in Vantaa, and we are expecting as many as 350,000 annual visitors,” says Tero Anttila, deputy mayor of Vantaa’s Urban Environment Department.

“Swimming hall projects represent demanding wet-room construction, in which NCC is widely specialized. NCC has conducted such demanding projects in Sweden and Norway, and has experience in an ongoing project in Oulu. We are now making the City of Vantaa’s vision come true by bringing our expertise, cooperation skills, as well as lessons learned from earlier projects to the Elmo swimming hall project,” says Kati Tauriainen, Head of NCC Building Finland.

The civil engineering work of Vantaa’s biggest and most versatile swimming hall will begin in the summer of 2024. The swimming hall as a building is scheduled to be completed in fall 2026, after which the final tests and trial runs of the special swimming-hall technologies will begin. The hall will open for business in 2026.

Long-waited swimming hall

Elmo swimming hall, situated in Asola, will especially serve customers living in the Korso and Koivukylä major regions. In the long run, the project will expand to, among others, an indoor ice rink and various ball fields. The area is easy-to-access by public transport, because it is situated along Asolanväylä, and Rekola train station is nearby.

The new swimming hall is one of the biggest swimming halls in the country. The main pool is a 50-meter steel pool, which has ten swimming lanes and a small space for spectators. In addition, the hall will have a therapy pool, a separate teaching pool, a jump pool, a wading pool, a children's pool, a cold pool, and a water slide. A gym and group-exercise facilities will, moreover, be built in connection with the swimming pool. There will also be a café for visitors to the swimming hall. The premises will be as barrier-free as possible, so that they can be widely used.

The swimming-hall building will be energy efficient and utilize renewable energy. The heat of the water pools and showers will be effectively recovered. Geothermal technology will be efficiently utilized for both heating and cooling. The parking lot will have 51 geothermal wells whose power is sufficient to cover 62% of the heating energy annually required for the building. The swimming hall’s energy-recycling system is prepared to utilize condensate energy derived from the ice rink and outdoor artificial ice rink that will be built next to the swimming hall at a later stage. Approximately 500 solar panels will be installed on the roof of the building.

The building will utilize wood to the extent possible, which is seen, for instance, in the facade and in the indoor structures of the swimming pool premises. Part of the roof will be green in order to decelerate rain-water strain.

Elmo swimming hall was designed by Siren Arkkitehdit Oy that has a wide experience in planning swimming halls in, for example, Helsinki, Turku, Oulu, and Iisalmi.

Construction traffic along Asolanväylä

The construction traffic to Asolanväylä goes through a junction, which means that the construction site is not likely to cause any major impacts on traffic in the area.

Preliminary construction work has already been conducted in the area. The earthmoving works of the parking lot, Elmonaukio and the city blocks, as well as building the water-management supporting tubes were already completed in the fall. Other building projects will be linked to the building of the swimming hall.

The swimming hall will be the first building finished in the Elmo sports park project. No decisions have yet been made regarding building of the other buildings in the area. Both the city’s and private actors’ projects are being planned for the area. For example, the ice rink has been planned on the basis of private financing.

Click here to see the Map.