We now know what the future Olympic Aquatic Center (CAO) for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games will look like for swimming, diving and even water polo. It is a highly anticipated piece of equipment, unprecedented in France, which will be located in Saint-Denis, very close to the Stade de France. The venue will be one of the only ones to be 100% built for the Olympic Games, here are the details.
Bouygues is going to build this Olympic Aquatic Center, after winning a final duel against Vinci. It is the end of four years of procrastination that almost cost a lot. Within a month, the delivery of this essential building to Paris 2024 was no longer guaranteed.
"Element of economic recovery"
On paper, this "wooden case hanging from the sky", as described by the two women architects behind its design, is magnificent.
But the aquatic center is also a strong political and economic symbol in a stationary France. "The construction of this center will be an element of economic recovery in France and the Paris region", believes Patrick Ollier, the president of the Metropolis of Greater Paris. "Because such a large project of 147 million euros, with integration clauses that will involve a lot of young people from Seine-Saint-Denis to find employment solutions, is both mobilizing and will develop in economic level an extraordinary enthusiasm. "
An additional cost on the total operation
The aquatic center will be directly accessible from the Stade de France via a footbridge, the cost of 20 million euros of which is included in the 147 million euros that the cost of the site represents. 147 million euros, but 174.7 million euros for the total cost of the operation, which includes the concession but also the provisions for risks and contingencies as well as the deconstruction and depollution works of the site. A previous provisional budget estimated this cost at 113 million euros, an additional cost of more than 60 million euros.
In the Olympic configuration, it will welcome 6,000 spectators and will house three pools: the swimming and water polo pool, the diving pool and the warm-up pool.
After the Games, it will become a sports facility for the general public in a department, Seine-Saint-Denis, at the heart of Paris 2024's priorities. From summer 2025, the Olympic and diving pools will be accessible for the sum of 4, 80 euros for adults from 16 years old, 3.60 euros for children from 3 to 15 years old, students and job seekers 1.50 euros per child for leisure centers and free for children from 0 to 2 years old.
A real district will be born around this site, with the ZAC of Plaine Saulnier. But it is not for now, while work must begin in the summer of 2021.