Dudley Zoo's bear enclosure revamp nears completion

Finishing touches are now being made to the Bear Ravine, one of the Castle Hill attraction's historic Tecton buildings, and Kiosk One with the bulk of the project now finished.

Work was originally due for completion nearer to Easter.

Zoo bosses today said it had been finished earlier due to the project being carried out by in-house apprentices rather than an outside organisation.

Because the restoration has been completed ahead of time, workers have been able to move on to another of the site's Tecton structures, the Sealion enclosure.

The pair of symmetrical-shaped pools, which sit in the original moat of Dudley Castle, are being thoroughly cleaned in preparation for repairs to the sealion houses.

Construction Supervisor Carlo Diponio is working alongside specialist concrete repairer Martin Baker and apprentices Aaron Gelder and Nathan Beaman, using a cleaning machine which pumps out steam at high temperatures.

The repair programme will take around 12 weeks to complete - with a full week needed to clean the left side of the Sealion Pool.

Workers will then move on to repair the concrete structures which form the roof of the den, ramp and diving platform using original techniques.

Once completed, the team will then move on to the right side of the pool.

The zoo presently has only one sea lion, 26-year-old Cleo. Each side of the pool will be worked on individually so she can use one while the other is being worked on, bosses say.

Officials said they would look at increasing the number of sealions at the attraction following completion of the restoration.

Bosses also plan to begin work on the old Reptiliary once restoration of the Sealion Pool has been completed.

Zoo spokesman Jill Hitchman said: "It is literally only the final touches which are being added to the Bear Ravine and Kiosk One now. The majority of the work has been completed and we think Berthold Lubetkin, who designed the structures, would be proud of what we have done.

"We are still planning to open the structure at Easter, which has always been the intention, so some of the landscaping work around the structure will be done closer to that date.

"We are months ahead of schedule. This allows us to now begin on other projects, such as the Sealion Pool. After that we will probably look at the Reptilary.

"The Tecton collection isn't all about animals - half of the structures were designed for visitor use.

"We are proud that most of them are still in use today, although not all for their original purpose, and are being given a new lease of life."