Italian Authorities Push Back Decision on Concordia Wreck Removal

The Italian Government has delayed the date of the final decision on refloating and removal of the Concordia wreck so as to look into the plan’s details once more.

Based on the latest update, the Italian Council of Ministers, upon proposal from the Commissioner for the Concordia Emergency, has identified June 26th (instead of June 16th as previously decided) as the date for the conclusion of the decision-making meeting of the “Conferenza dei Servizi”, the committee composed of representatives of all competent authorities that will evaluate projects for the transportation of the Concordia wreck to an appropriate port for dismantling.

The additional time would be used for revision of risk assessments and proposed mitigation measures, as the project of this scale has never been conducted before and if anything goes wrong it could have catastrophic consequences. The previous plans envisaged refloating of the hulk on July 20, followed by its towage  to Genoa, where the wreck would be dismantled.

In the meantime at Giglio Island over 370 technicians are working 24/7 to complete the sponsons installation phase. Currently 12 sponsons have been positioned on the starboard side of the Concordia; 3 more are left to install on this side and 4 on the port side to reach the total of 30 needed for the refloating phase.

In parallel to engineering operations, environmental monitoring is also in progress.

[mappress]
Press Release, June 16, 2014