New Zealand: First Sections Removed from Rena Wreck

This week saw the first sections cut and removed from the fore section of the Rena, with the Bell 214 heavy-lift helicopter completing 14 separate lifts to the barge Kapua.

The barge made its first landing in Tauranga yesterday with an estimated 40 tonnes of steel, which included deck equipment and pieces of winches from the fo’c’sle.

Work is continuing with the modifications to the helicopter landing platform, and pre-cutting of upper decks, fo’c’sle deck, and equipment.

Helicopter-to-barge transfers will continue next week.

Braemar Howells/Unimar teams will be heading out to sea today to attempt to recover more Rena containers from the seabed – these at depths greater than 50 metres.

Since last week eight containers have been recovered. All had been rigged by a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) and many still carried their contents, including one container loaded with cans of baked beans and chocolate rice.

The recovery of those eight containers brings the total number of containers retrieved to 977. (There were 1368 containers on board when the Rena ran aground in October last year.)

Clean-up work continues on beaches, with 14 bags of predominantly beads, recovered from Matakana Island this week. Clean-up teams are also working in the Coromandel.

Debris recovery using a Unimar barge is also continuing at sea around the Rena where container flotsam and scrap steel has been collected this week.

[mappress]

Source: Maritime NZ, August 17, 2012