Back in the gloomy days of December, persistent rain led to three landslips at the Eden Project and forced the Cornish visitor attraction to close before the national lockdown.
Almost five months on, Eden is preparing to reopen on Monday and has revealed that it plans to turn one of the landslips into a spectacular new waterfall close to the rainforest biome.
Eden was in the midst of a successful Christmas season when heavy rain caused flooding and landslips at the former clay quarry.
Shortly after came the third national lockdown, during which – on 17 March – the project passed its 20th anniversary of opening.
Its interim chief executive, David Harland, said he could not wait for visitors to return. “Looking across the site now ablaze with colour in peak spring, it feels like the reawakening of a sleeping giant,” he said.
“It has been a very long wait in challenging times for everyone. As a project that thrives on bringing people together and creating community, it is wonderfully exciting to think that very soon families will be coming through our doors again.
Harland said restoring the site after the landslip had been a challenge but added: “It has been a total, inspirational team effort supported by many of the original specialists who designed and constructed Eden at the turn of the millennium. Our brilliant engineers and construction crews will remain on site to complete the repair.”
Si Bellamy, Eden’s chief activation officer, said geotechnical experts, civil engineers, surveyors, project managers and specialist water pumping teams had made the site safe after the landslips.
He said: “Eden now looks different in the areas of the landslips and our new designs for the waterfall are progressing.”
Another new site of interest at Eden that visitors will be able to inspect is a drilling rig preparing to bore almost three miles down into the granite crust in search of “hot rocks” that will be used to warm the attraction’s biomes and other buildings.
Eden is continuing to limit guest numbers and has timed ticketing so that social distancing can be maintained. Tickets must be pre-booked online through www.edenproject.com.