By Wendy Laursen 2015-09-25 18:27:42
About 200 technicians are currently working on the dismantling of the Costa Concordia.
Some are involved in stripping operations, the removal of internal structures on the emerged decks of the ship, while the others are working on the actual demolition of the external steel structures and on the restoration of buoyancy of the hull.
Stripping out is currently concentrated on decks 3, 4 and 5 of the ship. As for demolition, deck 14 – the upmost – has already been removed and now work is focusing on the decks 12, 11 and 10.
The metal sheets are cut in blocks of variable size and brought ashore to be volumetrically reduced, if necessary, and then transported at the steel plant to be recycled.
Adjustments have been made to the floating system that is now being monitored and managed from the control room repositioned off shore to allow the demolition of the deck 14.
Many of the strand jacks used to guarantee stability for the starboard sponsons have been removed, as well as all the upper compartments of the larger sponsons no longer functional considering the progressive lightening of the wreck.
In the coming weeks the first sponsons will be entirely removed.
Environmental Monitoring
Environmental monitoring activities are regularly performed in parallel to the technical operations and no critical issues have been registered to date.
At the Prà Voltri worksite the quality of the water is being monitored with samples collected on a daily basis on the surface. Once a fortnight underwater sampling is conducted together with sediment monitoring.
The quality of the air is also measured by four monitoring stations and a central control room where the data are compared with the situation prior to the arrival of the ship.
Before the start of operations, booms and other absorbent sponges and skirts were put in place around the ship at Prà Voltri.
Multi-disciplinary rapid response units specializing in fire prevention and environmental response activities are available 24/7 should the need arise (e.g. for removal of any spill).
Disposal
The Ship Recycling Consortium has published this table of material disposal.
The vessel as it was when operational.
This post was sourced from Maritime Executive: View original article here.
