The Hernani City Council has reported that the municipal sports center's swimming pool will remain closed for at least the entire week due to a detected fault in the facilities. The Council has indicated that the reopening will depend on the replacement of the damaged part and will communicate the return-to-service date once a concrete forecast is available.
Hernani's pool is not the only one out of service, as Usurbil's is undergoing rehabilitation work due to a fire recorded last summer. The project was awarded by the Usurbil City Council to the company Igez Eraikuntzak SL for an amount of 640,000 euros. These works have an execution period of five months.
The fire occurred on August 27, 2025, in the sauna of the sports facilities and caused significant material damage, especially in the area around the sauna and the pool. The flames also spread vertically, affecting various internal infrastructures of the sports complex. After evaluating the damage, the City Council estimated the repair cost at around 640,000 euros and approved a credit modification for that amount in the October plenary session, with the aim of expediting the intervention without having to wait for the insurance company's resolution.
The administrative processing for awarding the works has taken longer than initially expected due to various incidents in the contracting process. In a first tender, the company initially proposed to carry out the works did not submit the required mandatory documentation, which forced the Council to annul the file and restart the procedure.
Subsequently, the City Council opted for a second call through a negotiated procedure without publicity, inviting three companies to submit an offer within ten working days. Finally, only Igez Eraikuntzak SL submitted a proposal, which was accepted as it met all the technical and administrative requirements established in the tender document.
The municipal objective remains to fully reopen the sports center next autumn. The awarded company estimates that, in the absence of significant setbacks, the works can be completed in approximately four months and three weeks. With this intervention, the City Council aims to fully restore one of the most used sports facilities in the municipality, which has been partially out of service since last August's fire and whose recovery is considered a priority within the municipal sports infrastructure planning.
One of the advantages for users of the Usurbil pool is that the municipality is part of the Buruntzaldea Kirola Commonwealth, unlike Hernani. This way, residents of Usurbil can access the facilities in Andoain, Lasarte-Oria, and Urnieta for free, whose pool opens during the summer season.
