Costa Concordia Wreck Almost Ready for Winter

Members of the team responsible for informing the public about the state of Costa Concordia wreck organized a meeting last week to share some new information about Costa Concordia removal project. The meeting was attended by Maria Sargentini, Chairman of the Observatory, Sergio Ortelli, Mayor of Giglio, and Franco Porcellacchia, coordinator of the Concordia wreck removal project for Costa Crociere.

At the meeting, the team said that Costa Concordia wreck is stable. After minor movements registered in the 15 days following the parbuckling, the wreck has settled on the platform and the seabed. Since then, the monitoring systems active 24/7 have not indicated any significant movement.

The winterization operations are almost completed and the last details will be finished this week.

In the meantime, in the Livorno and Genoa shipyards, work is in progress to prepare the 15 sponsons that will be positioned on the starboard side (land side) and the remaining 4 on the right side (sea side) in order to proceed with the refloating phase and have the wreck ready for towing by the end of June 2014.

The sponsons will be completed with the installation of strand jacks in the shipyards and will be transported in vertical position to the Giglio Island in the spring, thus prepared for installation in order to optimize time. The installation of the sponsons is expected to take place in the month of April, after the completion of the restoration operations needed on the damaged area of the starboard side.

Finally, Costa Crociere informed that 405 safes have been removed from the dry cabins on board the wreck in agreement with judicial authorities; contents will be inventoried and handed back to their owners.

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The Parbuckling Project, December 17, 2013