Costa Concordia What will happen to it now?
Discussion
Willy Nilly said:
+1, I'd have slung a couple of straps over it, then put the pallet forks under it, pulled on the straps and lifted the forks and she'd have been the right way up by dinner time.
Exactly, me and my mate, monkey winch, two strops and a bit of rope, would have had it done by bacon roll time.Also, after the consortium won the bid to raise the wreck it would have taken them a while to staff-up, build the caissons, transport them to site, build the underwater platforms then transport them to site & place them in situ so that they won't move once the ship is sitting on top of them. There was also the oil & heavy fuel removal that had to be tackled first.
Then they had to move approximately 200 clams from the seabed, which wouldn't take 5 minutes.
Also, sinking the piles into the seabed for the hoisting cranes would take a good few weeks/months too, along with underwater surveys by the divers of the wreck and the surrounding seabed floor.
Seems to me (that doesn't have the first clue about marine salvage) that they've done extremely well to get to this stage with such a huge vessel only 20 months after it sank.
However, I wonder if there might be a 'mishap' when the ship is refloated and on its way to a breakers yard. A mishap that just happens to occur in a fairly deep part of water.
Then they had to move approximately 200 clams from the seabed, which wouldn't take 5 minutes.
Also, sinking the piles into the seabed for the hoisting cranes would take a good few weeks/months too, along with underwater surveys by the divers of the wreck and the surrounding seabed floor.
Seems to me (that doesn't have the first clue about marine salvage) that they've done extremely well to get to this stage with such a huge vessel only 20 months after it sank.
However, I wonder if there might be a 'mishap' when the ship is refloated and on its way to a breakers yard. A mishap that just happens to occur in a fairly deep part of water.
madbadger said:
Crossflow Kid said:
maser_spyder said:
But am I alone in thinking nearly two years to weld on some boxes and build a platform, given the 'budget no problem' approach seems like quite a long time...
There are hundreds of workers on site, round the clock, burning up millions of dollars, I just thought they'd manage it a bit quicker.
It's in Italy, remember?There are hundreds of workers on site, round the clock, burning up millions of dollars, I just thought they'd manage it a bit quicker.
oobster said:
However, I wonder if there might be a 'mishap' when the ship is refloated and on its way to a breakers yard. A mishap that just happens to occur in a fairly deep part of water.
Somewhat unlikely when salvors are paid on successful completion of the job. 
Although I know this isnt being paid for in the usual way, as the ship is worth significantly less than the value of the salvage operation.
Also regarding the time its taken, not bad I dont think? The amount of work which has had to go into it is unbelievable; the planning, checking, building, checking, recovering bodies etc. You dont start to move something weighing 140,000t, with probably about the same weight in water inside without being pretty sure that you know where it will end up.
Condi said:
oobster said:
However, I wonder if there might be a 'mishap' when the ship is refloated and on its way to a breakers yard. A mishap that just happens to occur in a fairly deep part of water.
Somewhat unlikely when salvors are paid on successful completion of the job. Although I know this isnt being paid for in the usual way, as the ship is worth significantly less than the value of the salvage operation.
Also regarding the time its taken, not bad I dont think? The amount of work which has had to go into it is unbelievable; the planning, checking, building, checking, recovering bodies etc. You dont start to move something weighing 140,000t, with probably about the same weight in water inside without being pretty sure that you know where it will end up.
Disposal is a different contract. So, not entirely wrong thinking....
Ok, I phrased that badly before.
I know how much of a huge task it is, I've seen it up close. I am also an engineer, so I have an idea of what might go on behind the scenes.
But, given the budget (bottomless pit) and the fact that the best in the business are working on this (there are a LOT of British flagged support vessels mulling around Giglio!), it just seemed like quite a long time.
Herald of Free Enterprise (which I know sank pretty much un-damaged) was re floated a month after sinking. I know it's not the same vessel, and there are a lot of other factors, but one month, 20 months. Quite a disparity.
I know it's a huge task, and it's fascinating to watch, but are they making just a bit more of this than is actually necessary, just because it's in a precarious place?
I know how much of a huge task it is, I've seen it up close. I am also an engineer, so I have an idea of what might go on behind the scenes.
But, given the budget (bottomless pit) and the fact that the best in the business are working on this (there are a LOT of British flagged support vessels mulling around Giglio!), it just seemed like quite a long time.
Herald of Free Enterprise (which I know sank pretty much un-damaged) was re floated a month after sinking. I know it's not the same vessel, and there are a lot of other factors, but one month, 20 months. Quite a disparity.
I know it's a huge task, and it's fascinating to watch, but are they making just a bit more of this than is actually necessary, just because it's in a precarious place?
maser_spyder said:
Salvors are paid once it's floated away from the site....
Disposal is a different contract. So, not entirely wrong thinking....
Surely salvage is returning it to the dock/yard where disposal will start? The salvors wont hand it over while still at sea, as the job is unfinished. Disposal is a different contract. So, not entirely wrong thinking....
maser_spyder said:
Herald of Free Enterprise (which I know sank pretty much un-damaged) was re floated a month after sinking. I know it's not the same vessel, and there are a lot of other factors, but one month, 20 months. Quite a disparity.
I know it's a huge task, and it's fascinating to watch, but are they making just a bit more of this than is actually necessary, just because it's in a precarious place?
There are a few reasons - firstly there were 30 bodies somewhere inside the ship which had to be found and removed, whereas most of the Enterprise's bodies were quite accessible I believe. Secondly there was a lot of surveying work to find out what was damaged and then to stabilise the ship as it was on the rocks. Its a lot bigger than the Enterprise, a lot heavier, a lot more damaged and a in a totally different place. The Enterprise was essentially undamaged and resting on a soft sandbar; quite a simple refloating job. The Costa was on a steep mountain-side and the risk was always that it would slide down into deeper water. Because of that you couldnt just right it, they had to build a cage to catch it as it went upright. I know it's a huge task, and it's fascinating to watch, but are they making just a bit more of this than is actually necessary, just because it's in a precarious place?
Its the biggest salvage operation ever attempted so 20 months doesnt seem too bad. I would be very interested how long it took from getting the go ahead to do it to now though. Would dare say there was months of bureaucracy before anyone started doing anything productive.
Condi said:
maser_spyder said:
Salvors are paid once it's floated away from the site....
Disposal is a different contract. So, not entirely wrong thinking....
Surely salvage is returning it to the dock/yard where disposal will start? The salvors wont hand it over while still at sea, as the job is unfinished. Disposal is a different contract. So, not entirely wrong thinking....
Funnily enough, Herald of Free Enterprise was nearly lost on the salvage run to Taiwan, it's not unheard of....
maser_spyder said:
Funnily enough, Herald of Free Enterprise was nearly lost on the salvage run to Taiwan, it's not unheard of....
USS Oklahoma http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Oklahoma_(BB-37)
I'm not sure what could be gained by an unfortunate 'mishap' that sees the ship sink under tow to the breakers. The salvage operation is bloody expensive and far exceeds the scrap value, or even the replacement cost. I'd expect the most expensive chunk of the project is complete, so losing the ship now would save them nothing and give them no chance of recouping anything from the scrap.
doogz said:
It hasn’t taken a long time.
There’d have been an immense amount of calculation work went into this operation. They’d have to reference back to the original ship global strength calculations and drawings, as well as carry out a load of calculation and modelling on the local structure around their tanks, and the large brackets welded onto to hull that the winch wires were attached to. The loads at each point of interest would have changed drastically throughout the operation, as would their direction, and potential mode of failure.
I’m not sure if they knew how much damage there was to the side of the ship resting on the bottom/rocks, but that’s not usually a damage case that’s assessed during normal ship design, so they’d have had to refer to the original drawings and carry out an analysis of all the bending/shear/buckling loads and stresses to ensure it didn’t fall apart when they were righting her. There are just so many issues that’d need to be assessed and appropriate action taken before they could just sling a couple of tanks and a winch on the side, and flip her up.
Fair enough, they’d have had a decent sized team working on it, but I can think of enough work required there, to keep me busy for years!
Not a decent sized team, a HUGE team!There’d have been an immense amount of calculation work went into this operation. They’d have to reference back to the original ship global strength calculations and drawings, as well as carry out a load of calculation and modelling on the local structure around their tanks, and the large brackets welded onto to hull that the winch wires were attached to. The loads at each point of interest would have changed drastically throughout the operation, as would their direction, and potential mode of failure.
I’m not sure if they knew how much damage there was to the side of the ship resting on the bottom/rocks, but that’s not usually a damage case that’s assessed during normal ship design, so they’d have had to refer to the original drawings and carry out an analysis of all the bending/shear/buckling loads and stresses to ensure it didn’t fall apart when they were righting her. There are just so many issues that’d need to be assessed and appropriate action taken before they could just sling a couple of tanks and a winch on the side, and flip her up.
Fair enough, they’d have had a decent sized team working on it, but I can think of enough work required there, to keep me busy for years!
Burning up, at the current rate of knots, around $8 million a week.
For $8M a week, working round the clock, the efforts are on a different scale....
Dave_ITR said:
Chrisgr31 said:
and of course passengers wont be keen on travelling on it.
I'm sure it would be re-named should it ever be back in service.'Diver dies during work on shipwrecked Costa Concordia in Italy'
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/02/diver...
Sad day.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/02/diver...
Sad day.
ABLE are one of a number of companies bidding for the work, from what this article says it sounds like they want to use an Italian one though: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/i...
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