Plans are in place to rectify construction defects at the «Animal Island» at the Mykolaiv zoo by autumn

The Animal Island enclosure complex at Mykolaiv Zoo, screenshot from a video by Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych/Facebook

Mykolaiv Zoo plans to complete repairs to defects in the construction of the summer enclosures at the «Animal Island» complex within the next 2–3 months.

This was stated in a comment to NikVesti by Oleksii Savchuk, Director of the Capital Construction Department of Mykolaiv City Council.

This concerns the rectification of defects that occurred even before the start of the full-scale war during the construction of the enclosures. The Capital Construction Department (CCD) has now announced a tender for the works, valued at 4.3 million hryvnias.

Data from the ProZorro public procurement system

According to data from the ProZorro public procurement system, last year the Capital Construction Department had already signed a contract with the company «Reconstruction and Construction» worth 1.6 million hryvnias. The contractor carried out part of the work related to the dismantling and investigation of the foundations of the structures.

According to Oleksii Savchuk, the main problem turned out to be the condition of the ground beneath the enclosures.

«The Animal Island is not a straightforward project because, many decades ago, it was a large enclosure, like the one you can see opposite, where the lions are. And it is quite deep. Also, apparently in the 1990s, leaves were piled up there to a depth of about 6 metres. Then embankments were built there, and it turned out that when this facility was built in 2020, it was actually constructed without any recesses. And there is a third enclosure, closer to the centre, which is situated precisely at that depth,» he explained.

In 2025, the contractor carried out structural excavation and demolition work to determine the actual scope of the necessary restoration. Around 300,000 hryvnias were spent on this.

Currently, they plan to carry out the main phase of the work: soil compaction, restoration of the paving, and the reconstruction of three ponds in the enclosures, which were built to a poor standard.

«We did a lot of digging last year to reach the load-bearing layer and restore it layer by layer using backfilling with soil. These are the works that couldn’t be taken into account straight away,» noted Oleksii Savchuk.

According to him, one company has submitted a tender, and its documents are currently being reviewed. The total cost of the project will be around 6 million hryvnias.

«These funds are sufficient to complete the work. We’ve already seen everything and just need to finish it off. The contract stipulates four months. I think we’ll actually be able to finish within two to three months. Plus, commissioning will take some time. After that, we’ll be able to bring the animals in,» added Oleksii Savchuk.

«Animal Island» at the zoo

Construction of the «Animal Island» complex began in 2020. The first tender was won by the Odessa-based company «Inzh-Stroi» LLC, which at the time had only one successful project to its name — the repair of an angiograph at a hospital in Mykolaiv. The cost of the work on the enclosures was estimated at 19.4 million hryvnias.

The «Animal Island» summer enclosure complex at Mykolaiv Zoo was scheduled to open in September 2021. In the winter of that year, the then-director of the City Council’s Capital Construction Department, Oleksandr Pozdniakov, announced the completion of the summer enclosures.

At the same time, it emerged that the zoo lacked staff to maintain the completed «Animal Island» complex. In this regard, the zoo’s director, Volodymyr Topchii, submitted a request to the city council asking to be allowed to hire four more people.

In December 2021, it emerged that a further 4.9 million hryvnias were to be spent on the construction of the «Animal Island» enclosure complex.

The city authorities are using the DREAM system to seek a donor who would provide funds for the major renovation of the glass roof of the «Animal Island» building. The cost of the project already drawn up for this work amounts to 179,900 hryvnias.