Nine months after the Curley Center reopened in South Boston following a $31.2 million renovation, it had to close on Friday due to a clogged drain and heavy rain from Thursday.
But a spokesperson for the Boston Centers for Youth and Families has good news for members who want to get back to working out: The popular center on L Street will open again on Saturday with normal hours.
“The center had a backed up drain partly because people were flushing things they shouldn’t and also due to the rain,” the spokesperson told the Herald. “The drain was cleaned out early yesterday evening. We kept it closed today to make sure the wet areas were properly cleaned and dried.”
Officials continued to investigate on Friday, but it seemed that “the clog was partly due to wipes that people are flushing,” the spokesperson added.
BCYF, in a post on X, alerted members that the center closed early on Thursday night so staff could “take care of some issues in the women’s locker room.” They initially expected the center to be open normal hours on Friday before deciding to close the entire day.
This wasn't the first time the Curley has closed since reopening last summer, as a water issue shut it down for a large part of the day last Nov. 6. There was also a closure that lasted a couple of hours due to maintenance issues last Sept. 12.
The center reopened last June after being closed for three years. It shut in March 2020 due to the pandemic and then construction began in October of that year.
City officials highlighted the renovations, which included a focus on resiliency to combat the impacts of climate change and future ‘king tides,’ with features such as an open basement for water and sand to flow, interior waterproofing, and removable metal plates to help hold back water at the ocean side.
If flooding occurs on the building’s exterior, the water will go beneath the building and into drainage ditches, and there’s a way to shut the plumbing off to prevent rising, BCYF’s director of operations Eddie McGuire told the Herald last June.
“Essentially, we can make sure that in a major, 100-year storm, the facility won’t get washed out,” he said.
There was some controversy when the center reopened because of the piping plover, a federally threatened small, stocky shorebird. Due to the piping plover’s nesting season, it took officials an extra month to allow the public to use L Street Beach.
