Most crucial phase of the salvage project
The Costa Concordia parbuckling operation has been successfully completed on 17 September 2013. The wreck is now upright and resting safely on the specially built artificial sea bed, at a depth of approximately 30 meters.
On the night of January 13, 2012 Costa Concordia ran aground at Isola del Giglio, Italy and sank resulting in the death of 32 persons and the injury of 157 others. The 114,500 ton ship capsized as a result of large-scale internal flooding from a 53-meter long breach of its hull involving five watertight compartments. The breach occurred when the ship allided at a speed of 16 knots with the Scole Rocks off Giglio Island in the Tyrrhenian Sea.
On April 21 2012, Costa Crociere and the Costa Concordia Emergency Commissioner’s Office announced that the tender for the removal of the ship from Giglio Island has been awarded to Titan Salvage in partnership with the Italian firm Micoperi. The work begun in early May after final approval from the Italian authorities.
The removal plan would be divided in five subsequent phases: stabilization,installation of submarine supports and portside caissons, parbuckling, installation of caissons on starboard side and finally re-floating.
The parbuckling or rotation phase was a very delicate phase, during which the forces involved have to be offset carefully to rotate the wreck without deforming the hull. This phase was very crucial for the success of the salvage project.
Here a is a colletion of pictures from the parbuckling operation of the Costa Concordia:
The starting of parbuckling operations initially planned at 6.15 a. m. of September 16th had been rescheduled for about two hours (tbc) due to the strong thunder storms on the island. The storms had in fact prevented the positioning of the barge on which the control room is installed and other operative units.
Parbuckling Project operations: This picture gives a view of the strand jacks connected to underwater platforms. The strand jacks were used to rotate the ship.
Capt Nick Sloane (SeniorSalvage Master) leading the operation for the Titan-Micoperi consortium. The team operating in the Barge Control Room included 11 experts: a dedicated Ballast Engineer, ROV pilots, engineers who are strandjack specialists, a computer engineer and a design engineer.
The wreck side successfully dislodged from the reef at 4.20. p.m. by applying a maximum load of 6,000 tons (in line with forecast), thanks to the force exerted by the strand jacks operating the system of winches and steel chains. For the next hours the cruise ship rotated until the successful completion of the parbuckling. The ship has spent the last 20 months being crushed under its own weight so the amount of damage to the submerged side was obvious!
At about 4 a.m. CEST Tuesday, the parbuckling operation had been successfully completed! The wreck was upright and resting safely on the specially built artificial sea bed, at a depth of approximately 30 meters.
Images Credit: The Parbuckling Project (official dedicated website for the Parbuckling Project operation)
Pictures presented in the media show a ‘shocking condition’ of the cruise ship.
So, what comes next? Costa Concordia will now be towed to a port in Italy and will be later scrapped. The scrap value will be a fraction of the salvage costs and practically may not even cover the cost of breaking the vessel up. This is reported to be the biggest scrap salvage operation ever.
Read more information on the Costa Concordia cruise ship wreck here:
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Costa Concordia Salvage Operation Completed Costa Concordia update: Blister tanks positioning |
