New Zealand-based Fitzroy Engineering has completed construction of what it says will be the largest underwater restaurant in the world. The 410-metric-ton structure is now en route via ship to its final resting spot, just offshore of Huravalhi Island in the Maldives.

The restaurant was maneuvered alongside a crane ship using three trucks, after which two 400-ton cranes lifted it onto the ship and readied it for its three-week trip to the small Indian Ocean nation.

Two 400-ton cranes lift the restaurant onto a ship to begin its three-week trip to the Maldives. Image credit: Fitzroy Engineering.M.J. Murphy Ltd. of Auckland also designed the first such restaurant, the Ithaa, likewise located in the Maldives.

The restaurant will arrive on-site in early March and be lowered onto specially prepared piled foundations on the edge of a coral reef at Huravalhi Island, where a new resort is currently being built.

The building is 18 m long x 5.4 m wide, with an 80-ton floor/hull constructed from 114-mm-thick steel in order to add ballast weight. The restaurant is covered by acrylic arches, 5 m wide x 130 mm thick, fabricated in Japan by Nippura C. that are designed to make diners feel surrounded by the ocean and the fish life. A 190-mm-thick panoramic underwater acrylic window at the end of the restaurant gives views along the sloping coral reef.

On the open ocean side, special concrete platforms have been developed by M.J. Murphy upon which the corals from under the restaurant have been replanted. The platforms will be lifted off the seabed and bolted to the ocean side of the restaurant once it is in place to allow ocean-side diners to observe coral and fish life.