{"id":11744,"date":"2013-06-02T06:58:00","date_gmt":"2013-06-02T06:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/raising-the-costa-concordia-the-largest-most-expensive-salvage-plan-ever-undertaken\/"},"modified":"2013-06-02T06:58:00","modified_gmt":"2013-06-02T06:58:00","slug":"raising-the-costa-concordia-the-largest-most-expensive-salvage-plan-ever-undertaken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/2013\/06\/raising-the-costa-concordia-the-largest-most-expensive-salvage-plan-ever-undertaken\/","title":{"rendered":"Raising the Costa Concordia – the largest, most expensive salvage plan ever undertaken"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Here’s The Ingenious $400 Million Plan To Deal With The Wrecked Costa Concordia.<\/b>
Images:\u00a0 CBS News<\/a>
click any image to enlarge<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In January, the cruise ship Costa Concordia struck a rock off the shore of Isola del Giglio<\/a>, in the Mediterranean.<\/p>\n

30 people on board the largest passenger wreck of all time lost their lives; two are still missing.<\/p>\n

Nearly a year later, the wreck is still sitting off the Italian coast, mostly submerged.<\/p>\n

Because the Costa Concordia is in a nationally protected marine park and coral reef, it must be removed from the area before it can be dismantled, posing countless difficulties.<\/p>\n

In a report on the efforts to remove the wreck<\/a>, 60 Minutes’ Leslie Stahl visited the site and recounted the remarkable salvage operation, which has a $400 million price tag.<\/p>\n

Not only is it the riskiest, most complicated, and most expensive salvage plan ever undertaken, but no one is sure if it will work.<\/p>\n

The ship weighs 60,000 tons and is filled with seawater.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It is sitting on two underwater mountain peaks.<\/p>\n

65 percent of it is below the surface.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The wreck is an official crime scene.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The operation, which will cost about $400 million, is being paid for by insurance companies.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The plan is to rotate the ship upright, and onto an underwater platform.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Then it will float up, leaving more of its structure above the surface.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

And it can be towed away.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Before getting on the inclined ship, workers must take a 4-day mountain climbing course.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The underwater platform is being built in northern Italy.<\/p>\n

The steel must be transported through the Adriatic Sea, around the boot of Italy, and up to the wreck.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The steel that makes it up weighs three times as much as the Eiffel Tower.<\/p>\n

It will be embedded in the seafloor.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The drill bit will be enclosed in a large tube, to keep debris from contaminating the protected area.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

For now, the ship is held in place by steel cables, but strong storms could dislodge it. <\/p>\n

Then it would sink to the seafloor, making the salvage operation near impossible.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

111 salvage divers are currently working on the salvage operation around the clock, in 45-minute shifts.<\/p>\n

They attached the cables holding the ship where it is.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

They all live in floating barracks, next to the wreck site.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

How exactly will workers rotate Costa Concordia onto the platform?<\/p>\n

The plan essentially involves “weld[ing] a new ship onto the shipwreck,” Stahl reports.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

That new “ship” will consist of huge, hollow steel boxes.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Called sponsons, the biggest are 11 stories tall.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

9 will be welded onto the exposed side of the ship, with just 2 inches between them.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Then steel cables will connect the sponsons to the steel platform.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Hydraulic pulleys will pull the ‘Costa Concordia’ upright.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

More sponsons will be welded onto the other side of the ship.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Once the ship is upright, the extra buoyancy should make it float.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The ship will be floated next summer.<\/p>\n

Once the process begins, there is no way to stop it, even if something goes wrong.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The backup plan is to break it up where it lies, it a huge cost to the local environment.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

If all goes well, the ‘Costa Concordia’ will be cut up for scrap, far from Giglio.<\/p>\n

It is so large, the process will take 2 years.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s The Ingenious $400 Million Plan To Deal With The Wrecked Costa Concordia.Images:\u00a0 CBS Newsclick any image to enlarge In January, the cruise ship Costa Concordia struck a rock off the shore of Isola del Giglio, in the Mediterranean. 30 people on board the largest passenger wreck of all time lost their lives; two are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11744\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}