Osborne Aquatic Center roof corrosion forces pool shutdown; district and city seek community funding partners for multimillion-dollar repairs

The Corvallis School District told the board that a structural failure discovered in the Osborne Aquatic Center’s natatorium roof required emergency shoring and draining of the indoor pool and that early engineering estimates to repair the roof and address related deficiencies run into multiple millions of dollars.

The Osborne Aquatic Center is owned by the school district and, under a 1999 operating agreement, is operated daily by the City of Corvallis. Ryan summarized the district’s account of the problem: interior steel roof connections showed serious corrosion where an exterior exoskeleton meets the interior structure; engineers warned crews not to access the roof until shoring was installed. The city installed internal shoring and drained the pool so shoring could be put in place; that action exposed other capital issues because the plaster liner and other systems are designed to remain underwater and have deteriorated since the last major renovation in 1998.

Why it matters: Osborne is a rare 50-meter indoor pool used by school teams, regional swim clubs and about 1,000 regular community…