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Salvage workers to raise Italy ship wreck Monday
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Salvage workers will attempt to raise Italy’s Costa Concordia cruise ship on Monday, weather permitting, in an unprecedented operation costing more than 600 million euros (US$798 million), officials said.
“If weather conditions allow, the operation will start at 6am on September 16,” Franco Gabrielli, head of the civil protection agency, which is overseeing the operation, said yesterday.
“This is an operation that has never been attempted before,” Gabrielli said.
Once the wrecked ship, which residents have said is an eyesore, is upright, it will be towed away for scrapping.
The 114,500-ton luxury liner has been lying on its side just off the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio ever since it hit rocks and keeled over with 4,229 people from 70 countries on board in January 2012.
The night-time disaster claimed 32 lives.
Using giant cement sacks and a custom-made metal platform, the rusting hulk has already been secured. It was threatening to slip off an underwater rock shelf into deeper waters.
The plan is to drag it up using ropes and pulleys — a complex and delicate operation since the hull of the ship is badly damaged.
Italy’s civil protection agency said the official go-ahead would only be given on Sunday afternoon.
The operation is expected to be completed in a single day and officials have said they will block all maritime traffic in the area until it is over.
“The size of the ship and its location make this the most challenging operation I’ve ever been involved in,” said Nick Sloane, the chief salvage operator.
Sloane said he was prepared for the hull to buckle as it is being raised but emphasized the operation had to be carried out this month because of its weakened condition and the prospect of winter storms.
Gabrielli ruled out the possibility of the hull splitting in two.
Sloane explained the ship will initially be dragged up with ropes for four or five hours before gravity takes over and it begins to right itself on its own, with giant metal tanks fixed on the side currently exposed acting as brakes to prevent it from flipping over. Salvage workers have already removed the ship’s fuel.
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