Over the evening of Tuesday 9th February, the latest big fabrication project to come out of Fitzroy Engineering will make its way slowly to Port Taranaki.

Following the usual route via Devon Road, Northgate, Hobson Street, Molesworth Street and St Aubyn Street, the 450 tonne Underwater Restaurant will go to the port for shipping to its destination in the Maldives, Indian Ocean.

Designed by leading aquarium and underwater restaurant design engineers, MJ Murphy Ltd from Auckland, this underwater restaurant (UWR) will be the second only of its type to be deployed anywhere in the world. MJ Murphy Ltd were also the designers of the first UWR (now world famous, called Ithaa… also in the Maldives for a different resort), and have been involved in the design of many major public aquariums around the world, similar to Kelly Tarltons Underwater World in Auckland.

This new UWR will be delivered to site by heavy lift ship and lowered onto specially prepared piled foundations on the edge of a beautiful coral reef at Huravalhi Island in the Maldives, where the clients, Champalars Holdings Pvt Ltd are building a complete new luxury resort. As many scuba divers will attest, the water in the Maldives is especially clear and the corals and fish life astounding.

The UWR will sit alongside the steeply descending coral reef, so that all diners can view the corals and the fish they attract. For the deep open ocean side, special concrete platforms have been developed by MJ Murphy upon which the corals from under the UWR have been replanted, and are now waiting in the sea for the arrival of the UWR. These ‘coral garden’ platforms will be lifted off the seabed and bolted to the ocean-side of the UWR once in place, so that diners on the ocean side also get an amazing view of corals and attracted fish life.

Fitzroy Engineering Project Manager, Adrian Van’t Hof says “the amazing 5m wide x 130mm thick acrylic arches covering the UWR have been designed by M.J. Murphy Ltd and fabricated in Japan, and are optically perfect, so diners will feel ‘immersed’ and surrounded by the ocean and the fish life”. There will also be a large spectacular panoramic underwater acrylic window (190mm thick) in the end of the UWR which is expected to wow the lucky diners, with amazing long views along the sloping coral reef”.

The underwater dining room is accessed by foot down an impressive spiral staircase at one end, complete with two smaller underwater acrylic windows to titivate the patrons as they descend down to the dining room, glass of sparkly wine in hand. There will also be a dumb waiter lift for restaurant staff to bring down all food and drinks from the above-water kitchen.

Fitzroy Engineering were successful in securing this project in the face of strong international competition, and their ability to fund and coordinate large work-scopes allowed them to manage the bulk of the work required. This included all of the steel fabrication, installation of the acrylic windows and roof, ballasting, installation of air conditioning and electrical systems and all of the internal fit out.

The restaurant is 18m long x 5.4m wide, and working with MJ Murphy Ltd, Fitzroy established that considerable efficiencies could be achieved by building the floor of the hull from 114mm thick steel in order to add very efficient ballast weight. Procedures to heat, weld and safely rotate the 80 tonne floor were developed and implemented and this proved to be very successful.

The Underwater Restaurant project has been an extremely successful and exciting project, and Fitzroy Engineering and M J Murphy Ltd are very grateful to the Clients for allowing them to be a part of their fantastic project. All parties are all loo