Post date: Sep 12, 2013 3:52:43 PM
Engineers say they are excited ahead of a September 16 date when they will attempt to set the Costa Concordia upright. They say their biggest problem now is likely to be the weather.
GIGLIO, ITALY (RECENT - SEPTEMBER 3, 2013) (REUTERS) - The wrecked Costa Concordia crusie ship, which capsized off the Italian coast two years ago, killing at least 30 people, could be pulled upright as early as Monday, those involved with the salvage operation said on Thursday (September 12).
The giant vessel has laid on its side partly submerged in shallow waters off the Tuscan island of Giglio since the January 2012 accident. It is poised, however, to be rolled off the seabed and on to underwater platforms.Workers will also search for the bodies of two people - an Italian and an Indian unaccounted for since the disaster, as machines haul the 114,000-tonne ship upright and underwater cameras comb the seabed.
"If the weather conditions consent it, we will start at 0600 on the 16th," Italy's Civil Protection Commissioner, Franco Gabrielli, told a news conference in Rome.
Divers have pumped 18,000 tonnes of cement into bags below the ship to support it and prevent it from breaking up in an operation which is expected to last 8-10 hours and is part of a salvage operation estimated to cost at least $600 million.
A buoyancy device acting "like a neck brace for an injured patient" will hold together the ship's bow, and fishing nets will catch debris as it rises from beneath the ship.
"The pecularity of this project is that we will set a ship upright that is enormous and we don't have anything to rest it on, if not the artificial seabed that we have had to construct. This is what makes this a great and unique task," the Vice-President of Carnival Corporation, Franco Porcellachia, explained.
Carnival Corporation owns Costa Cruises which ran the Costa Concordia.
Titan Salvage is involved in the salvage operation. The Senior Salvage Master at Titan is Nicholas Sloane, who speaks of the Concordia almost as though the ship was a close friend.
"So we know that she is going to suffer minor buckling damage as we do the operation because we are putting an extreme amount of force around her, both underneath her, so you are actually compressing her into her starboard bilge. And that's why it is so important that we built that grout mattress to support her," Sloane said.
"Now that we are approaching the parbuckling date, I would say that we have looked at those risks and put in enough mitigation factors that we are pretty satisfied that we going to be right next to her when we are doing the operation and we expect her to come up."
Sloane added weather could be the biggest issue at this stage.
"Obviously this time of the year is the end of summer and you are going into the autumn change so weather most probably the single biggest risk to the operation but we are still in the middle of September so we're quite confident we'll find a weather window, soon."
But Sloane went on to say that there was more excitement than concern on the salvage site as the parbuckling date draws closer.
"Everyone is pretty excited and satisfied that an incredible plan has been achieved and we look forward to making sure that we parbuckle as soon as we can" he said.
"I think everyone is very energised and looking forward to it, quite excited" he added.
Four Costa Concordia crew members and a Costa Cruises company official were sentenced to jail in July for their part in the accident, and the ship's captain Francesco Schettino remains on trial for manslaughter and causing the loss of the ship.
The captain is accused of abandoning ship before all crew and passengers had been rescued. A coastguard's angry phone order to him - "Get back on board, damn it!" - became a catchphrase in Italyafter the accident.
The Costa Concordia hit a rock when it manoeuvred too close to the island, prompting a chaotic evacuation of more than 4,000 passengers and crew, in one of the most dramatic marine accidents in recent history.