Quick heads up – the new 36m² chunk of acrylic which is going to make up the front of the new 2 Oceans Aquarium exhibit is arriving this week.
That’s a fair-sized piece of acrylic by anyone’s standards, and so they’re going to need to close a bit of road to get it from where it is (presumably the docks – I think it was coming in from Italy) to where it needs to be (definitely the aquarium). That means that you can probably expect some delays getting into the V&A Waterfront from the CTICC side this week.
Here’s what you need to know, as per the Waterfront’s website:
A short section of Dock Road will be closed due to a crane required to to unload the acrylic wall for the new predator tank at the Aquarium. This is no ordinary cargo….the acrylic wall is manufactured in Italy and measures 9m x 4m x 350mm and will provide a seamless window into the exhibit. The new predator exhibit will contain 1.5 million litres of seawater and will be six metres in depth.
The outgoing two lanes i.e. from the Aquarium to the bend in Dock Rd just past One & Only will be closed. Traffic will be redirected onto the other side of the road, which will therefore be bi-directional from Tuesday 7 October until Friday 10 October. Flagmen will be positioned at the road deviation incoming and outgoing.
We do expect traffic congestion due to the deviation so you are encouraged to enter the V&A Waterfront using Granger Bay and Portswood Boulevards.
There’s loads more information about the new exhibit via this post, detailing our behind the scenes visit.