Congress Park Pool opening delayed

Denver's Congress Park pool, which underwent a $10.1 million rebuild starting in 2021, will likely not open to the public until late July according to the general contractor on the project. City officials had hoped the pool would have opened by early June, when the summer pool season started.

Nancy Kuhn, with Denver's Department of Transportation and Infrastructure, confirmed the delay and told CBS4  it's due to foul weather.

"We had great weather in April and the first part of May, but that unusually-late May snowstorm we received slowed progress in terms of getting the paint to cure," said Kuhn.

Dave Guida, who is guiding the construction project for Mark Young Construction, said this week it would likely be another month before the pool opens for public use. He deferred further questions to city officials.

The Congress Park pool reconstruction was funded by the Elevate Denver bond which was approved by voters in 2017. The pool was built in 1955 and had become one of the city's most costly pools to maintain with major leaks plaguing the pool in recent years.

CBS4 also documented a slew of hairline cracks throughout the pool which appeared as soon as the concrete was poured. Kuhn said the cracks were "predicted, anticipated, and completely normal in this type of construction."

She said the cracks were first noticed last October and "is part of the normal concrete curing process. There are no structural issues with the pool and no unexpected settling."

She said the city plans to "revisit what, if anything, needs to be done with the hairline cracks after the summer season as part of our regular project follow-up protocol."

Kuhn said "for future maintenance and aesthetic reasons, we may want to address them."