Chester Zoo have released images showing the progress on their £30 million Islands Project.
Islands, the biggest and most ambitious zoo project in UK history, is set to open to the public in June 2015.
One of the key features of Islands is the Lazy River Boat Journey. Images released by Chester Zoo show the progress on the 15 minute boat trip that will transport 238 guests at a time through the recreated habitats of Panay, Papua, Bali, Sumatra, Sumba and Sulawesi.
Gareth Simpson, the zoo’s operations implementation manager, explained that the project has had its challenges to date: “Installing the boat cable is one of many, many challenging tasks we’ve already tackled on this exciting, but incredibly complex, project. The team from the zoo battled the elements, deep mud and high water to lay the cable. Such is the level of expertise needed on this project, an expert from Germany who has worked with cable cars, then joined us to advise on how to connect it all up to the mechanical wheels. The 14 boats that will be towed by the cable weigh over 11 tonnes and can carry up to 238 visitors at any one time, so installing it was no mean feat. I’m pleased to say that it’s all now starting to come together nicely and we can’t wait for June.”
Kieran Stanley, CEO of creative agency dan pearlman who designed the architecture and landscape, plantings, animal habitats and boat trip for Islands, will be speaking at blooloopLIVE London 2015 on May 7th.
