(Updated at 11:15 a.m.) The 50-meter pool at the Long Bridge Aquatics & Fitness Center will have shorter hours for several months for needed repairs.
The pool area will close at 8 p.m., about two hours early, on weekdays starting next Monday, Jan. 29 to replace leaky pipes and water-damaged ceiling tiles caused by a corroded sprinkler hose, the Arlington County Dept. Parks and Recreation said in a press release. Weekend hours will not be affected.
Arlington County is paying the contractor who built the Long Bridge Aquatics & Fitness Center an extra $1.2 million to make up for project delays.
Despite this overage, the entire project is expected to come in at least $2 million under its overall budget.
Construction is starting next week to make Boundary Channel Drive and the I-395 interchange near Crystal City and the Pentagon safer.
The impact on locals should be “minimal,” Virginia Department of Transportation spokesperson Mike Murphy told ARLnow. While there could be lane closures, access to surrounding facilities will be kept open.
A new locally-focused antique and collectibles market is coming to Long Bridge Park next month.
Forever Grateful Market is set to take place on Saturday, September 3 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. outside of the now-year-old Long Bridge aquatic center in Crystal City. This will be the second time the market has been held there, with the first one taking place earlier in August.
The Long Bridge Aquatics and Fitness Center closed early yesterday (Thursday) due to an electrical emergency.
“At approximately noon on Thursday, the incoming voltage to the building began spiking beyond what was safe for our equipment,” Arlington Department of Parks and Recreation spokeswoman Susan Kalish tells ARLnow.
Public Safety Watchdog Profiled — “Like a lot of people, Dave Statter got a bit bored when the pandemic hit and he was pretty much confined to his home. But unlike most of us, Statter lives high atop a Crystal City building overlooking I-395. Why binge Netflix when just outside the window is real-life drama, pathos, tragedy and comedy, all captured by the five video cameras Statter has trained on the traffic below?” [Washington Post]
Aquatics Center Struggling to Hire — “It’s been open for almost three-quarters of a year, but Arlington’s Long Bridge Park aquatics center is not immune for finding personnel that are plaguing the rest of the county government… The aquatics facility, which opened last summer after a lengthy and difficult birthing process, is still in need of a general manager and aquatics-program manager, and the 16 lifeguards on staff would require an infusion of eight to 10 more to bring it to a full complement.” [Sun Gazette]
Fitness buffs, lap swimmers, curious residents and families with kids could be seen trickling into the Long Bridge Aquatics & Fitness Center this morning (Monday), on the opening day of the new facility.
A 12-year-old girl from Dorothy Hamm Middle School was the first to jump into the water, according to the Department of Parks and Recreation spokeswoman Susan Kalish.
Opening Date Set for Aquatics Center — The new Long Bridge Park Aquatics and Fitness Center will open on Monday, Aug. 23, the Arlington Dept. of Parks and Recreation announced yesterday. [Twitter]
Local Org Resettling Afghan Refugees — “Besides Lutheran Social Services, the [Arlington-based] Ethiopian Community Development Council, the International Rescue Committee, and Catholic Charities do a lot of work to resettle Afghan [Special Immigrant Visa] holders in this area. Christy McCaw of African Community Center DC Metro, the ECDC’s resettlement branch, says her organization needs leads on apartments that will rent to newcomers without proof of income.” [Washingtonian]
The new Long Bridge Aquatics & Fitness Center “should open later in this month,” a county spokeswoman tells ARLnow.
The long-planned, $60 million center near Crystal City is preparing to make its debut as a destination for lap swimmers, casual pool users and fitness buffs alike. A formal announcement of its impending opening is imminent, we’re told.
The long-planned and long-debated Long Bridge Park Aquatics and Fitness Center is set to open this summer, perhaps as early as July.
The $60 million facility, construction of which was approved in 2017, is located north of Crystal City and south of the 14th Street Bridge, offering monumental views across the Potomac. It features a 50-meter competition pool with diving towers, a whirlpool, a family pool with a splash pad, a water slide, water volleyball and basketball areas, and a lazy river — in addition to an 8,000-square-foot fitness center and rooms for for classes, parties and events.
Arlington’s first free-standing aquatics center could open its doors in the next couple of months.
“The [Long Bridge Aquatics & Fitness Center] will be opening this summer, but it’s too far out to give an exact month or day,” Dept. of Parks and Recreation spokeswoman Susan Kalish tells ARLnow.
