Outdoor pools Wylerbad in the city of Berne starts the swimming season after renovation

The Wyler outdoor pool in the city of Bern celebrates its reopening on Wednesday after a ten-month renovation phase. Among other things, bathers can expect an enlarged 50-metre and non-swimmers' pool, a redesigned and shaded paddling pool and a new playground.

The Crazy Jump slide, which is also new, is likely to cause queues, added Franziska Teuscher, Sports Director of the City of Berne, at a media orientation on Tuesday. The slide is part of the renovated diving tower and replaces the two one-meter diving boards.

While Teuscher and other project managers presented the new features, the last paving stones were laid and lawns rolled out. The renovation took a month longer than planned. Mayor Alec von Graffenried assured that the municipal council had not specially arranged for bad weather to conceal the delay.

Rain caused the delay

In fact, the bad weather was to blame for the ten-month instead of nine-month construction phase, said city master builder Thomas Pfluger. The rain had prevented the welding and jointing work. However, the credit of 11.1 million francs had been adhered to. A large part of this was spent on the technology.

Mayor von Graffenried emphasized the importance of the outdoor pool for the district. Although he is not a regular visitor to the Wylerbad due to a "traumatic experience": years ago, his children pushed him onto the five-metre diving board - and immediately lost respect for him because he was unable to do a somersault.

Renovation of indoor pool still open

The renovation did not include the catering area of the outdoor pool or the associated indoor pool, which, according to von Graffenried, has not yet been scheduled for renovation.

The voters of the city of Bern approved the construction loan for the outdoor pool by a large majority in March 2023. Because the Wylerbad had never been extensively renovated since it was built in 1971, the pools were leaking and the technology was at the end of its service life.