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Raising the Costa Concordia Live

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At the moment, it's sorta like watching paint drying.
 
I'm going to wait for the time-lapse version. :wink-new: And to think this thing was twice the size of the Titanic!
 
Not able to watch now. Hope to catch the replay. BTW Mark, Hi!! Have not seen you around for a while.
 
I hope they do a modern marvels episode or something on this. It's never been attempted on thins scale before. There's got to be some pretty awesome engineering involved.
 
I did see a bit of it at work today on streaming video. Quite an amazing undertaking.
 
Time lapse start to finish:


BBC video
 
The general idea was also used in 1942 to right the battleship Oklahoma in Pearl harbor. There the ship was almost completely upside down in the mud and they used a couple dozen or so cable setups anchored to Ford Island to roll it back upright. Tokk much longer that this operation though due to attack damage and being bottom up in the mud.
 
I didn't realize that so much of it is still under water. I wonder if they plan to buoy it up more or take it as-is in the cage it's now sitting in.
 
Pretty neat they way they pulled it back up, but what are they going to do with it after they get rid of the environmentally sensitive stuff ?? Put it back in service, just scuttle it, or cut it up in small pieces for salvage??
 
My understanding is they're now going to weld additional tanks onto the other side and once complete will blow the water out of all of them to refloat. Kinda like a really big submarine drains it's ballast tanks to go to the surface.
 
Here's the basic plan. Next step involves adding air chamber to the other side of the ship, then lifting it to "normal" depth. Then pull the ship to a cutting yard.

raising-the-wreck-concordia-salvage-plan-designboom03.jpg
 
And after all this, I'm pretty sure they plan to scrap it (in another location).
 
The general idea was also used in 1942 to right the battleship Oklahoma in Pearl harbor. There the ship was almost completely upside down in the mud and they used a couple dozen or so cable setups anchored to Ford Island to roll it back upright. Tokk much longer that this operation though due to attack damage and being bottom up in the mud.

+1 -That's the first thing I thought about. However, the Oklahoma only tipped in at 30,000 tons (IIRC), which the Costa was 114,000 tons. The Pearl Harbor salvage operations are really one of the unsung stories from World War II. Other than Oklahoma and Arizona, all the other battleships damaged and sunk at Pearl all returned to service to make their presence felt at later battles. The salvage operation of the USS West Virginia, in particular, was quite an engineering feat, as almost the entire port side of the ship was torn apart by no fewer than seven Japanese torpedoes.
 
True that the Oklahome weighed much less, but also ended up in a much more difficult position. The battleship rotated about 170 degrees and buried it's topsides in the mud. It's site was also shallow enough that there was no way other than to drag ot around and hope it didn't decide to slide on/in the mud up against Ford Island. The cruise liner on the other hand appeared to be setting at about 70 degrees off horizontal and was being, I think, moved back to vertical in a way more like dropping onto the platform while rotating. Big jobs for both none the less.
 
BTW, I was reading that the Costa gross tonnage, or actual weight, is more like 60,000 tons. The 114,000 ton figure is displacement which is a different type of measurement having to do with hull volume.
 
Not able to watch now. Hope to catch the replay. BTW Mark, Hi!! Have not seen you around for a while.


How you doing Bas and all?

Been pretty busy with work and all. Now I find myself seeking employment, not much fun. I am still lurking around here on occasion.


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