Everything is falling into place for what is said to be the most challenging salvage project in the history, that of Costa Concordia’s refloating and subsequent towing for scrap.
Despite strong winds during the night, the Concordia wreck has emerged for about 11 meters, according to the salvage team.
This means that there are 3 more meters to reach the required draft.
“Starboard sponson S4 is almost in position. Work is in progress to lower sponsons S5 and S14,” the salvage officials said in an update.
The initial date for the wreck’s towage was today, Monday July 21st, however, inclement weather has delayed the date and technicians are also looking at Tuesday 22nd as an alternative possibility.
On Saturday, the wreck gave quite a scare to the salvage technicians as a small amount of hydrocarbons was spotted in the mid ship/aft of the Concordia wreck.
But, inspection findings of the Oil Spill Response team showed that there is no damage in the structure, nor in the hot tap flanges.
[mappress] Press Release, July 21st, 2014,