Impivaara swimming hall closure forces swimmers outdoors until October

Renovation has closed Turku’s Impivaara Swimming Hall, Finland’s largest swimming hall by pool area, until the end of October, Yle reports. Swimmers are using temporary facilities, including outdoor pools and other indoor pools.

The closure has created a major capacity challenge for Turku’s sports services. In addition to public swimming sessions, the city must accommodate competitive swimmers from across the region.

Uinti Turku, a swimming club with nearly 350 swimmers, has had to find training space elsewhere. Even its youngest swimmers train five or six times a week.

Temporary facilities include outdoor pools, pool facilities operated by the wellbeing services county and a pool in the basement of a city property on Puolalankatu.

Swimmers aged 11 and 12 who train in the basement pool describe the lanes as narrow and the space as echoing. Training in outdoor pools as the autumn weather cools has also required persistence, although the young swimmers’ motivation has remained high.

Heidi Rissanen, executive director of Uinti Turku, said arranging pools for the autumn season had been a considerable effort. Some schoolchildren’s training sessions run until 8.30pm because facilities must also be made available to the public.

“The further into autumn we go, the more attractive indoor facilities become,” Rissanen said. She estimated that relying on outdoor pools in September and October, with training dependent on the weather, would reduce swimmers’ motivation.

Dry-land training has been increased to some extent, but Rissanen said it could not replace swimming. Turku has particularly limited access to shallow pools suitable for children.

“The impact on teaching swimming skills and families’ swimming activities is significant,” Rissanen said, questioning whether families would continue visiting swimming halls when access and swimming instruction are temporarily limited.

The renovation, which began in the summer, is improving ventilation and replacing tiling. The 3.5 million euro project is being carried out by Pöytyän Rakennus Oy.

Jouni Anttila, a construction project engineer for the City of Turku, said unexpected problems had been found, but the hall was still expected to reopen on schedule. Additional work was needed because the surfaces beneath the tiles were in worse condition than expected.

The timetable for further renovations at Impivaara is expected to be decided during the autumn. Planned work includes repairs to the changing rooms, washrooms and saunas.

Impivaara Swimming Hall was completed in 1975. It has eight pools and seating for 1,000 spectators. The hall recorded 695,250 visits in 2025. A comprehensive renovation carried out between 2009 and 2012 cost 23 million euros, while the current project includes more than 1,000 square metres of new tiling.