Saga of the Slips: Part six

Quick deck update for you all: Project timeline:

The Building Management Committee has put together a project management timeline and sheet to make sure what gets done is done when it needs to be. This was a significant piece of work and we're incredibly grateful to them.

Funding and fundraising. 

As you are all well aware, we have been knocked back by Heritage, Lottery West, and the Department of Sport and Recreation. We have also now been knocked back by the City of Perth which does not have a fund for projects like ours. Tijah from the COP was kind enough to write back and suggest we approach the Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority (which is also one of the approving bodies for this project).

We have written this letter to the Minister for Sport, Tuck Waldron, which we've been advised is under active consideration. So there is hope, if only a little hope.

Thanks very much to vice president Jess Donnelly for handling this for us.

Why we can't have a floating deck

I am regularly asked why WARC is not considering replacing our aging deck with a floating structure such as at Champion Lakes and elsewhere around the world.

There are a couple of reasons:

1. The tidal nature of the Swan River does mean the verticle movement is fairly significant. Tall pylons would need to be secured to the end of the deck to allow the vertical movement.
2. The strong river currents also mean the deck would have to be fastened with pylons no more than eight metres apart - far shorter than an eight. This means it would be virtually impossible to launch an eight on a low-tide day.
3. The structural integrity of the building is such that the additional pressure applied to it by the east-west flow of the river and strong winds means the building itself could be damaged by the floating deck.

Now, this list is by no means comprehensive, but I wanted to reassure the membership that a floating deck has been considered, it has been carefully considered and it has been deemed something that will not work well for our situation.

The next steps

The next steps are for the Building Maintenance Committee to put together some drawings that we can take to the Heritage office to start getting the approvals ball rolling. You can read about the requirements here. 

If you would like to know more about the engineering and design of this project, please don't hesitate to get in touch with Clem Williams on cwillia7@bigpond.net.au.