The $800,000,000 Salvage of Costa Concordia

when the thunderstorm finally clears the Salvage team is eager to get on with the next step in the Salvage process using strand Jacks to apply 6,000 tons of force they attempt to pull the vessel upright with 19 months of work all coming down to this moment this ship doesn't budge on the 13th of January 2012 the Costa Concordia struck a rock near jigo island Italy because of Captain Francesco sko's poor navigation during an unsanctioned sail past the cost Concordia measured 290 M long and 35 M wide with luxurious amenities for over 3,000 guests the Collision gouged a massive hole in the hull flooding the engine room despite the severity the captain delayed evacuation leading to chaos and confusion eventually the ship listed and partially sank leaving 32 people dead for a more in-depth story on the sinking of the Costa Concordia check out the video in the link the Costa Concordia was owned by the Italian subsidiary of Miami based Carnival core and Carnival public limited company PLC the largest operators of cruise lines worldwide with 49% market share they own over a 100 cruise ships and the Costa Concordia was one of their biggest representing 1.5% of their total capacity cost Concordia was twice the size of the Titanic and as long as three American football fields the wreck landed in jigo Island's Tuscan archipelago National Park and pelagos whale Sanctuary which is famous for the biodiversity of its habitat and frequent sightings of Finn Wales and striped dolphins with the wreck lying in a national park and Marine Sanctuary it was important to remove the wreck quickly in one piece with minimal impact to the environment concordia's W was also a threat to ziggo's economy which relies heavily on tourism on the 3rd of February 2012 custers owners invite 10 of the world's leading salvage companies to bid for the contract to remove the Concordia six companies are asked to prepare their proposals outlining their strategies for the Salvage operation Franco gabrieli the head of the Civil protection authority holds a meeting with the residents of jigo and announces the Salvage and for the cost Concordia he explains the ship will be removed in one piece refloated and towed away the residents expressed their concern about the environmental impact of the wreck the vessel is on the edge of an underwater Cliff suspended at Bow and Stern by two underwater Rocky outcrops if the ship slides and breaks apart it could spill over 2,000 tons of oil into the pristine Sanctuary to address the environmental issues an initial contract is awarded to Smith Salvage and its partner neari spa for pollution control to remove the ship's fuel oil and to clean up debris coming from The Vessel the Concordia has an estimate a 2200 metric tons of intermediate fuel oil which is a blend of gas oil and heavy fuel oil and a further 185 metric tons of marine diesel and lubricants in its 17 tanks both fuels contain toxic compounds which are harmful to marine life and if they leak will decimate the sanctuary and local beaches 2,000 M of offshore booms are deployed around the vessel and along the coastline of jigo Island the booms will contain any oil or debris that escapes from The Vessel and a small flaa of oil recovery vessels are on standby on the 12th of February 2012 Smith and Neri start the defueling operations they use a technique known as hot tapping divers drill through the bottom of the hle of the ship and into the fuel tank so they can mount a control valve on the underside of each fuel tank they then install another control valve at the top of the fuel tank and attach hoses to the top and the bottom valves ship's fuel is a thick viscous oil the oil is warmed to make it thinner so it'll flow more easily the oil is pumped out of the upper hose and into a tank on a barge at the surface sea water is pumped into the tank through the lower hose to push the fuel up and out of the tank to fill the space which helps to stabilize the ship's balance the salvages move from tank to tank and the process takes longer than expected exceeding the original 28-day plan by the 24th of March 2012 all 17 fuel tanks are defueled which relieves the immediate concerns about the environmental impacts of the wreck the bids committee now has a crucial choice to make when appointing the Salvage contract the bids committee is made up of experts from Costa and Carnival who own and operate the ship consultants in salvage companies and environmental agencies and Technical experts in ship building they evaluate the BDS from a technical point of view to make sure they meet the requirements and recommendations set by the Italian authorities and to make sure the plan will work to remove the wreck with maximum safety precautions and as little impact to the environment to tourism and the economy of shigo in April the contract is awarded to Titan Salvage which is a subsidiary of Crowley Maritime corporation based in Florida Titan Salvage has valuable experience in salvaging some of the toughest Marine disasters and access to highly specialized personnel and Equipment through another Crowley subsidiary Jensen Maritime a seattle-based naval architecture and Marine engineering firm Titan is able to provide sophisticated support like like project management Specialists procedure writers designers project control engineers and heavy Logistics managers Titan partners with an Italian offshore service provider in construction and Engineering called microair who have critical heavy lift Assets in the Mediterranean the Salvage operation sets up its base at the Port of cich here they anticipate the operation to take 12 months costing up to $300 million in May 2 12 Titan Salvage and M cair appoints South African Salvage Master Nick Sloan to oversee the operation Sloan is a highly experienced Salvage Master his 40 Years of Maritime experience will be put to the test by the largest Salvage operation in history a month later the Salvage team start their preparations drawing up a five-stage plan to refloat Concordia the Salvage workers go on a 4-day mountain climbing course to prepare for working on the Steep angles of the the wreck they then set about removing structures and equipment from the ship's exterior like the radar water slide and funnel with those out of the way the team can begin the first phase of the operation to Anchor and stabilize the wreck to prevent it from slipping or sinking down the Steep seabed they need to secure the ship and create an environment that's safe to work even in bad weather to stabilize the ship Nick and his crew set up an anchor system made of four four submerged anchor blocks each 35ton block is fixed to the sea floor between the center of the wreck and the coastline they run 16 heavy wires or hold back lines from the four anchor blocks to the Concordia they then install seven more anchor blocks along the length of the ship to bring the total number of blocks to 11 11 towers are installed on the anchor blocks each tower has two hydraulic strand Jacks attached to a total of 22 chains each link of chain measures 68 cm and weighs 48 kg the chains are then secured under the hull to prevent the ship from sliding down the slope at this point the ship's resting at a 70° angle 20 M below the water line with the ship secure the team moved to phase two the ship is already suspended at the bow and Stern between the two Spurs of rock now it needs a platform for the middle of the ship to rest on to create a stable foundation in the uneven terrain Titan's dive team plac 15,000 cubic M of cement filled groundout bags between the two Spurs of rock to build up a platform each bag is the size of a residential swimming pool straps on each bag will make it easy to poist out and remove at the end of the project 120 specialized divers from 11 countries work with crane operators at the surface to arrange the bags at the seaf Flor the project logs around 100 Dives per day at a depth of 45 M for 45 minutes each and then the divers head to the hyperbaric chamber for decompression for every diver there are five Crews supporting him from above the water line the surface team provides Direction and monitors the diver's depth and air continuously by the end of the project the dive team completes more than 22,000 Dives winter weather rolls in while the Dives are placing the grout bags two of the worst storms in 45 years hit the island in just a couple of weeks in late October they're named the Halloween storms and they cause the ship to sink almost 2 m which causes a delay in the operation luckily the ship doesn't distort Buckle or collapse and so the Salvage operation can continue as planned the team now installed six steel platforms butting up against the grout bags with the largest weighing th000 tons the platforms are constructed at 3 different fabrication yards around Italy using a quantity of Steel three times the weight of the Eiffel Tower piles to Anchor the massive platforms into the seabed are installed alongside the grout bags each pile needs a hold that's 2 m in diameter and over 12 M deep the holes must be drilled into the side of an underwater Granite Mountain the Salvage crew describe it like drilling into a piece of glass at a 45° angle with a hand drill only on a much larger scale of course the holes have to be drilled in the right place so when the platforms arrive they fit the holes with only a 1% tolerance the holes must be finished 2 to 3 weeks before the platforms go in to allow time to make any minor modifications to address the granite drilling challenge the team make custom templates that match the footprints of the platforms they then attach hydraulic Rams that drill into the granite they use two templates one weighs over 75 tons and a larger one at over 270 tons to protect the environment during the drilling the drill head is enclosed in a closed circuit system with an 8ft pipe running from the seabed to the surface to extract drill cuttings and mud sediments marine biologists from Rome's University La saena also temporarily relocate more than 280 giant muscles scattered Among The Meadows of Neptune grass for protection the next challenge is to transport sponsons from the shipyard to the work site sponsons are metal boxes that will be attached to the side of the vessel the sponsons are fitted with hoses and air pumps that are computer controlled to create buoyancy or add ballast water the largest sponson is 800 tons and the tallest is 11 stories high they're constructed at five different ship yards around Italy and transferred to a holding site before being shipped to the project site as needed the sponsons have a specific position on the wreck and aren't interchangeable so they're brought to the site in a specific order and orientation the underwater team finished drilling the last hole and the platforms arrive on site there's a margin of error of less than 15 cm over the whole length of the platform beyond that the legs won't fit the hollow legs of the platforms slide easily over the piles and the salvages breathe a sigh of relief when the platform fits perfectly in place overall from the platforms sponson subsy templates and all the other heavy steel structures used for the project a total of 33,000 tons of steel is fabricated enough to build two ships once the platforms are installed a specialized heavy lift ship called s spena is brought in to install special tools for parbuckling which is in phase three parbuckling is the method of pulling the ship upright with the use of cables and the sponsons which are waiting to be installed 11 of the 15 sponsons are installed on the port side of the ri which is the upper side that's above the water line the bow is hanging over the forward Reef so they decide to use blister sisters which are tanks or special sponsons that act like a neck brace to cradle the bow during the power buckling maneuver the blister sisters reduce the chance of twisting the bow or damaging the sh ship further while the blister sisters are not originally part of the plan Captain Sloan wants to provide more support to the suspended bow the blister sister tanks are fixed to the hull via three anchor pipes installed in the bow thruster tunnels on the 13th of January 2013 a year after the accident for the first time the operation stops for a day the families of those involved in the tragic disaster for the Concordia gather to remember the 32 lives lost the Italian authorities become concerned about cuttings and mud sediment from the drilling process along with debris from the Salvage operation and the wreck the Salvage team are ordered to remove 4,000 tons of sediment and debris from the seabed this delays the project for another month after clearing the area the team has to wait out another store between January and September the Salvage team installed the 11 sponsons on the port side of the ship on the 16th of September 2013 the team start the parbuckling maneuver they attach 36 hydraulic strand Jacks to the top side of the ship strand Jacks Are hydraulic hoists used to lift a heavy load the Strand Jacks provide a combined capacity of 13,000 tons of force the second Force they will use is Gravity the sponson can be filled with water to provide weight on the outside of the ship while the water provides a downward Force The Strand Jacks pull the top of the ship at an angle at first the sponsons are empty as they start pulling the massive vessel upright with a force of 6,000 tons the ship doesn't PGE the chains installed in Phase One are preventing the ship from sliding down the Granite Mountain they hold the bottom of the ship while the Strand Jacks pull the top of the ship in the opposite direction if the angle of forces are off and too much pressure is applied the chains underneath the ship could break and the ship could slide captain Sloan increases the hydraulic Force to 6,800 tons the ship slowly lifts from the rocks and the chains hold the vessel rotates 3° the plan is working as they rotate the ship they gradually reduce the pulling forces and start to flood the sponsons with water which helps roll the ship this is a finely choreographed maneuver left unchecked the weight of the water in the sponsons will pull the ship until it rolls over completely as the lifting gets to 10° they temporarily stop some cables are entangled and the team needs to free them then the parbuckling maneuver continues by midnight artificially pulling the vessel is no longer feasible it's rotated by 35° the sponsons are slowly flooding and gravity assists the team to complete the role the sponsons have a computer operated ballast control system to help count counterbalance the ship and prevents over rotation averaging 6° an hour the ship finally sits upright with no environmental spills at 0359 after 19 hours of hard work the parbuckling is complete on September 17th 2013 after being submerged for 20 months the ship is successfully rotated to a foty upright position this marks a huge milestone in the operation the team celebrates a significant victory but despite the optimism team knows that their job is far from over at this point the cost of the operation is already over $800 million well above the $300 million estimate once the ship is rotated they inspect the damage on the starboard side on the 10th of October 2013 a $13 million option is taken with dockwise a Dutch holding company for the use of the docwise Vanguard the world's largest semi submersible heavy lift vessel the salvage company are not sure if they'll be able to float the Concordia and docwise Vanguard is a possible option to transport the cost to Concordia in December 2013 the government issues an invitation to 12 companies to Tender for the dismantling of the vessel with the season becoming colder Titan Salvage does its best to prepare the vessel to withstand winter conditions they position an additional holdback system to avoid further movement of the bow similar to what they did in phase one then they install additional removable grout bags in between the wreck and the Shor side rocks finally they position tubular pipes that brace the underwater platforms to the Concordia on the port side on the 1st of February 2014 one of Titan's divers working on the wreck cuts his leg on a sheet of metal another diver brings him to the surface but the diver dies from the wound the wreck holds firm through the harsh winter months and in April 2014 Salvage teams start to install the starboard sponsons as part of phase four the damage to the starbard side of the ship creates a challenge because the team need a flat even surface to attach the sponsons they install heavy steel beams underwater and inside the damaged areas the steel beams have bumpers at the end that fit the external profile of the damaged starboard side this allows the sponsons to be installed in perfect alignment and to transfer the lifting forces into the hull of the ship the team also installed the ballast control system on the sponsons to prepare them for the refloating phase by late April 2014 after 2 and 1 half days of work the first sponsor the largest by height and weight is installed on the re starboard side they use a heavy lift crane on board a barge to lift the sponson into place the sponson on the port side are filled with more water to counterbalance the new weight on the starboard side by early July 2014 the salvages fit the last of 15 sponsons on the starbard side and four new sponsons on the port side this marks the end of phase four which is accomplished by 350 technicians including 120 diers after 2 and 1/2 years the final stage of the plan phase five has arrived the team plans to raise the Concordia off the platform by a few meters and move the wreck 30 m into deeper water on the 14th of July at 0600 Sloan and the Titan team gather at the remote control room which serves as the team's Command Center they can view the whole operation operate and monitor the computer control bance systems and the Strand Jacks using computers they begin the process of raising the 30,000 ton vessel Captain Sloan gives an order to start the pneumatic blowdown systems that are mounted on the sponsor air is pumped into the sponson and water is forced out Concordia slowly rises from the platform leaving 18 M of the Hill below the waterline but no draft or gap between the seabed and the ship the sers didn't expect that there would be no excess buoyancy to spare during the refloat without the blister sisters on the bow of the wreck they wouldn't have been able to raise the vessel the Salvage team have to perform a risky pulloff maneuver using t tugboats when pulling a ship that's run ground it often starts to move very slowly and then it gains momentum and increases speed very quickly regaining control of a vessel after pulling it at full power can be problematic especially if the space to maneuver is limited but they pull it off without a hitch over the next 4 days Titan Salvage fine-tuned the ballast to bring the overall draft of the ship to 18.5 M which will allow them to bring the ship into the dock on the 22nd of July after more than 2 years since the start of the operation the Costa Concordia is ready for its final voyage the next morning Titan Salvage tow it away and the Concordia leaves the Waters of jigo for the last time marine biologists carefully restore the marine life that was relocated and continue to monitor the health of the environment slowly life returns to normal for this ecosystem and the inhabitants of jigo on the 27th of July the Concordia completes a 4-day journey to arrive in the port of Genoa it was met by the ship recycling Consortium with the task of disassembling the massive vessel the team was made up of Italian companies siim and Soria de Porto based on their projections and strategy they expected the dismantling process to last over 22 months in order for them to carry out the project they employed more than 350 people to work in shifts nearly around the clock on the 9th of October the Consortium secured the permits and authorizations needed for the procedures to begin the port consisted of two separate worksites the ship was mured to a seaw wall at the Port as the scrapping began the banina Devol key was used for Logistics operations and waste management during the process the crew focused on maximizing the recovery of valuable materials from the ship steel aluminium and other metals were recycled and repurposed the initial ship breaking involved stripping and removing the furnishings and fittings of the decks above the water starting at the highest decks and working down one of the primary goals of this phase was to reduce the draft of the wreck the team took measures to minimize the environmental impacts of the dismantling process they implemented strict Pollution Control measures and containment protocols as each day passed the once Mighty vessel began to shrink on the 11th of May 2015 the hull was towed 10 mil to the super bino dock in Genoa where the upper decks and super structure were dismantled in August 2016 they removed the last of the sponson and the remaining external structures with the hull of the Costa Concordia now exposed they moved to the Final Phase in September 2016 the hull of the ship was transported into Genoa Dry Dock number four They removed all interior fittings and demolished the remaining superstructures the final scrapping of the ship was completed with over 53,000 tons of steel recycled [Music]

Channel: Waterline Stories

Views: 1,497

Keywords: Waterline Stories, costa concordia documentary, costa concordia sinking, costa concordia raising, costa concordia scrapping, costa concordia, costa concordia salvage, concordia ship, cruise ship, salvage operation

Id: ZJ0yaJmk0ZU

Length: 24min 17sec (1457 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 12 2024