Taking the plunge at Wild Waterworks will cost about $2 more this summer, but you'll also get more splash for your buck.

Two new, six-storey tube slides are being added as part of $1.5 million in upgrades that are also replacing two existing body slides at the popular Confederation Park attraction, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. The renovations boost the overall number of slides to six and are expected to be completed by the middle of May. One of the new tube slides will be open, while the other will be fully enclosed.

"We want to keep things fresh and interesting and exciting," said Tony Horvat, director of land management for the Hamilton Conservation Authority, which runs the park for the city.

"It should improve the user experience," he said. "We should be able to more than double our capacity on that slide tower, so the lineups will be shorter and you'll get more rides per day."

Water-slide enthusiasts will also pay more for the experience, with an adult ticket jumping to $18.10 from last year's $15.19.

Admission for children under 10 and seniors will be $11.71, up from $9.95. Special deals will remain available through partners like Mac's variety stores and Shoppers Drug Mart.

Mr. Horvat said the higher fees are expected to boost revenues by $200,000 this year, but most of the money will go toward paying off a 10-year, interest-free loan for the upgrades from the city.

The new slides will also require two additional staff as well as more power and water, he said.

"It's more maintaining our revenue stream and our competitiveness," Mr. Horvat said.

"If we don't add features, we lose market share to other places. We're also by far the least expensive water park within about a 150-kilometre radius."

A $1 million contract for the new and replacement slides and tower upgrades has been awarded to B.C.-based Whitewater West Industries.

The balance of the money will go toward increasing power and water capacity as well as structural alterations, including a new entrance to the slide tower and elimination of splash pools at the bottom.

The latter will be replaced by a slide run-out area that will use a reverse grade to bring people to a stop, a feature that eliminates any drowning risk.

Mr. Horvat said before reopening the park, the authority also plans to test changes implemented following last July's chlorine gas leak that sent 17 youths to hospital as a precautionary measure.

The result of a power failure, the leak caused choking and vomiting.

He said a special backup valve installed immediately afterwards appears to have fixed the problem.

"We're just bringing in an outside expert and doing additional testing to try to cover off as many circumstances as we can think of to make sure it doesn't happen again."