Lifting the wreck of the Costa Concordia

Yesterday, Monday 16 September 2013, the operation to raise the wreck of the Costa Concordia liner began off the coast of Giglio Island. The vessel had been half-submerged in the water since 13 January 2012, when the disaster occurred due to serious negligence. Thanks to the operation, whose budget amounted to almost 0.5 billion euro, it was possible to raise and remove the wreck.

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The whole operation was a unique undertaking. The object that had to be removed from the rocky quay was a liner 300m long, 35m wide and almost 70m high! This colossus, weighing 114,000 tonnes, required huge financial and raw material outlays to be able to stand upright and be towed away.

The liner was surrounded from the water by 6 platforms, situated on 21 piles driven into the sea bed. The wreck was connected to them by 56 ropes, almost 60m long and weighing 26 tons each! Over 30 thousand tons of steel were used for the whole construction, which is 4 times more than the famous Eiffel Tower.

The big risk since the disaster was the possibility of the wreck slipping into the deep sea. To avoid this, an artificial bottom was created using 16,000 tonnes of cement. To carry out an operation of this scale, a group of nearly 500 top engineers and experts from 26 countries had to join forces.

The weather unfortunately thwarted the workers’ plans a little and the whole operation started several hours late. Fortunately, on the night of Monday to Tuesday, the Costa Concordia was lifted and turned by 65 degrees. Appropriate safety precautions allowed for the temporary towing, but the liner will remain in the vicinity of Giglio Island until spring. Only next year will it be sent to one of the Italian ports.

As the supervisors of the whole process assure, the operation of raising the wreck proceeded according to plan and without any complications, therefore it was decided to continue the work despite the falling of dusk and later also at night.

The entire operation was led by Titan-Micoperi, under the direction of Nick Sloane from South Africa, who is an expert in maritime emergencies. He has already rescued other ships in various parts of the world in the past.

Source: dailymail.co.uk