FLOATING POOL WILL BARGE IN

 By BILL SANDERSON

October 20, 2006 -- On a hot summer day next year, city kids could be swimming underwater while floating atop it - aboard a barge outfitted with a 25-meter, seven-lane swimming pool. The city's new swimming-pool barge will be starting its journey to New York from a New Orleans shipyard today or tomorrow.

It'll be towed to Pier 2 in Brooklyn Bridge Park for further construction, and should be ready for swimmers in 2007 or 2008, Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said yesterday.

Besides the 4-foot deep swimming pool, the barge will carry a kiddie-spray pool, locker rooms, and showers. The pool will have enough space for 174 people.

The city hasn't decided where to berth the pool, although there's plenty of waterfront parkland.

The $4 million pool barge is being built with private money, but if it succeeds, the Parks Department may buy more. "It's a lot less expensive than building a conventional swimming pool," Benepe said.