E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSCrews have been working 24 hours a day, building structures around the sunken Costa Concordia in an effort to remove it from off the coast of Italy's island of Giglio. A year later, those who were on board are still coming to terms with the accident that killed 32 people. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.
ISOLA DEL GIGLIO, Italy -- A day before the one-year anniversary of the Costa Concordia wreck, a lengthy press conference Saturday is yielding frustratingly little news.
In this ongoing saga with many interconnected parts, it seems we've reached the point where it is just a waiting game for each painstakingly delicate phase of the removal operation to reach a point at which it's sufficient to finally move on to the next.
Engineers working on the massive salvage project -- the likes of which the world has never seen -- said Saturday that the wreck was now stable.
It is not moving, despite the fact that very little of it is actually touching the rock below. It's balancing on two peaks, basically, but has been tethered to the shore to keep it from sliding off the underwater cliff. It rests at a 65-degree angle.
September is when they expect to roll it over -- a moment the world is waiting to see. The question remains whether it possible to do this without the gigantic, 1,000-foot hull breaking apart?
No one is certain, but engineers say they are confident and that they "believe in this project."
Floats 11 stories high
The crews will have one chance only to get this right. Once the ship starts rolling upright, it cannot be stopped -- even if things start breaking down.
Engineers say it will surely be a noisy process -- as structures within the ship twist and collapse from the strain.
Engineers will do pre-checks for 2 to 3 days before that huge, slow roll upright, which will take approximately 6 to 8 hours.
/
The Costa Concordia, carrying more than 4,200 passengers, ran aground Jan. 13 off the coast of Italy killing 32 people - including two Americans.
The Concordia, of course, was not designed to take such pulling stresses on its hull, so certain areas will need to be reinforced, before cables and chains can pull it, finally, into the position in which it was designed to float.
By then, gigantic steel floats -- empty rectangular containers, some 11 stories high -- will have been welded all around the ship.
It's a treacherous environment there, jutting out of the sea -- crews working around the edge of the exposed hull had to take a mountain climbing course, to prepare.
After the operation is complete, the Costa Concordia meet its final fate -- to be towed away and scrapped.
In the meantime, every day, 24 hours a day, at least 400 workers from 19 countries together work on the preliminaries of this monster task.
It is very cold now, and conditions still difficult. Storms, and the waves they spawn, make everyone nervous. Divers can only stay underwater for 45 minutes at a time.
But they keep going, as survivors and families of those lost arrive back on this tiny island one year later.
Some carry flowers. Some are stunned to see the ship still lying in the same position.
But the structures built around it are impressive, and are starting to dwarf even the colossal disaster itself.
Leave a Comment:
Who writes these headlines? Still ponders? And there are 400 people working 24/7? Are they just standing around? It didn't sound like it.
There was a very good program on TV detailing how it was going to be up-righted.
A truly horribly written article . . .
"The question still remains" - question mark? Many other laughable structures.
Read between the lines and it will come to you. At one time in my life after failing to get a honest job I went to work as a journalist.
If they are going to scrap this ship why not just do it in place, lighten it up and when it is manageable haul it off. I do find this very exciting and sorry I missed the TV show but I am sure there will be a very interesting documentary in the future.
Just Sink it be a great reef for the fish!!!!!
It's a lot like our economy.
The way they are going to upright the ship is complicated.
The first thing they did was to secure it, with cables to the shore so it wouldn't slide underwater. Then they have started building a platform under the keel and to its seaward side. This platform will support the ship when it is uprighted. They are currently finishing the platform. Then they will begin to weld a lot of reinforcing steel plate in key areas inside the ship, both underwater and out of water, to keep the ship together while it is uprighted. They will then attach arms to the ship and to the platform. Cables will connect the two sets of arms. Then they will attach large steel boxes to the exposed side of the ship. hese boxes have neutral bouyancy. When all this is done, they will tighten the cables bringing the ship upright, but sitting on its keel on the platform. Steel boxes will then be welded to the newly exposed side of the ship. As air is pumped into the boxes on both sides the ship will rise free of the platform. It will then be towed to a work-port and will be scrapped. The reason that it will take until September is because of the massive number of individual dives it will take to do all the underwater welding and building. All this has to be done with extreme caution to preserve the rocks and marine life and the platform, cables, etc all have to be removed after the ship is towed away.
The ship cannot be allowed to settle where it is because that is a marine sanctuary with several endangered or threatened species of sealife. The ship would not make an ideal reef because it still contains substantial oil and hydraulics and all the contaminants of modern life. These would have to be complely removed (at a cost greater than refloating the ship) to make it into an artificial reef. Besides it is an active shipping channel and any reef would be a hazard to navigation.
I would give the lift about a 75% chance of success. These ships are built to a very low standard because of all the things that are considered such a remote possibility that they will never happen --- like hitting a rock at full standard speed. They are single-hulled, and of modular construction. This means that there are literally thousands of points of intersection that are welded and inaccessable. The only part that truly gives structure to the ship is the hull and that is badly damaged. If the ship starts to twist, it will tear apart like an empty beer can and there will not only be a massive marine environmental catrastrophe, but there will not be two or more "wrecks" to be removed instead of one. Just remember that the ship was never designed to stand the stresses that have already been put on it, let alone those that will occur in September.
They want to do it the hard way, all they really need to do is load it up with some bulk fuel tanks and simultaneously fill them all with air as the ship rights its self dismantle the upper structures till the load is lightened enough to pull it out where it canfloat and off to the docks for what ever else needs doing, or they can waste another year screwing around building exterior ballast and possibly getting someone killed. with ballast in the ship (the bulk fuel cells) they could have already moved it out of their, the way they are going about it they may as well pull it off the rocks and sink it where it is. way to much brain surgery. its simple all they need to do is displace the water and allow it to float its self, after all it is a ship isn't it.
@Chris-749391 - From your comments it seems that you know very little about naval architecture. First off, the Concordia is a relatively new ship, so the areas where her fuel tanks are are most definitely double hulled, if they were not the ship would not be allowed in most ports in the world. What drawings I can find, and there are not many, seem to show that the ship did in fact have a complete double bottom the entire length of the ship. Second, the hull plating, while contributing to the strength, is not where the primary strength comes from. The primary strength comes from the framing and internal bulkheads of the ship. These ships are most definitely not "built to very low standard" as you claimed. In fact, there are fairly strict standards to which these ships are built. The classification societies that control these standards can be real sticklers for meeting the requirements and the ship would never have been built unless it met the standards because it would not be insurable if it did not. Modular construction techniques really have no bearing on the strength of the hull, it is merely done for ease and speed of construction. As for welded areas that are inaccessible, this is somewhat true, but all critical areas are accessible for regular inspections that are required by the classification societies. It is definitely a possibility that the ship could suffer considerable damage and even break up to some extent when they try and bring her upright, but to say it could "tear apart like an empty beer can" is a bit of an exaggeration. I have confidence that the salvage company knows what they are doing and will keep this from happening. While this is definitely the largest salvage job they have undertaken, or any one else has tried for that matter, they are very experienced in marine savage operations. What I remember from my naval architecture days, and what I have read of the plan for salvaging the ship, I give them a very good chance of succeeding in getting the ship off the rocks in one piece.
ofcourse it will take a long time , its in italy and the 400 mobsters and the contractor will milk it for every dime as well as the overtime
@ FranciscoAutomatika
Pffff. Stupid robot.
Chris749***;
Clearly you know very little about modern ship construction standards and maritime law. All cruise liners oil tankers, and other vessels like LPG transports built after the Titanic have double hulls from the water line to the keel. Modular ship construction is also not new. The difference is the technique has improved and evolved over the years to make ship very strong while using less steel. Modern construction methods render vessel far stronger than those of the past and at the same time with lighter displacements and far better fuel efficiency than their predecessors. To say this ship was built to "very low standard" is a complete and utter falsehood. All ships have very strict standards to which they must adhere completely to be certified as "Sea worthy". The stress's exerted on them during normal operation are tremendous, weathering storms at sea can increase those stress's ten fold, while unlikely for a vessel of this type, it is possible and therefore, must be built into the ship.
This savage operation is complicated by how the ship is resting. Had it been on a sandy bottom or in fact, completely submerged it would be far less complex to right the ship and raise her to the surface. With the Concordia perched on two rock peaks, this will exert tremendous stress on those two points on the hull. Ergo, if everything does not go perfectly, this stress could very well break the hull apart, not every scenario can be foreseen and accounted for. If the assist floats are not attached and precisely the right points at the right time during the roll, the Concordia may roll over the opposite way and sink. Until you have spent some time as a salvage operator/diver, leave this to those who actually know how to do these things. Arm chair quarter backing is not only naive, it's irritating to those who actually have a working knowledge of what is involved with an operation like this.
The Concordia will become one of the "Seven to Ten" Wonders of the World.
What a draw for "Tourism" in Italy.
I don't get it. Weld the tears, pump the water. Get a tug to pull the ship away from the rocks as the hull lifts off the bottom (should start floating on it's side initially with some of the water still in it). Retrofit it and reuse it. What's the issue? A year of screwing with it, and all they're going to do is cut it up and scrap it. If they're going to do that, just save the trouble and have some underwater welders cut the ship into sections and drag it on shore with tugboats/winches/cranes. Am I missing something?
>Russellm, Trying to reuse the ship would be like rebuilding a car after it ran off the road and landed on two rocks. The frame (unibody really) would be bent up and the doors wouldn't shut properly, hood wouldn't close right, it would be so out of alignment that it would be a fight to keep straight while driving down the road. The big issue is the most efficient way to scrap it. Supposedly they decided to not scrap it on site due to environmental concerns, but I do wonder if the environmental damage is going to be worse with refloating it.
Sometime this September or October I'll bet anything there will be a 1 hour special on the Science Channel “Re-floating the Costa Concordia” 8pm eastern 9pm central. I can’t wait; this is really going to be something to see.
Hey, Michelle! Go back to school and learn how to write, edit and proofread before publishing. Grow enough pride in yourself to rise above the typical incompetent NBCNews.com reporter that you currently are.
One thing isn't in dispute. The lowest bidders who won this salvage contract, can't do it for the price they bid, so they are now making excuses who it can't be done unless they are given more money to get the ship up righted.
I know how they're supposed to upright it, but I'am waiting to see if it works. That's one big ship. Then they're just going to cut it up for scrap.
What ever happened to the dude that ran it into the rock?
Captain Francesco Schettino is starting his own maritime shipping and sea cruise company with investor/partner Joseph Hazelwood.
Dick2100935, You should explain that Joe Hazelwood was the drunken pilot of the Exxon Valdees, which ran aground in Prince William Sound, AK, dumping millions of gallons of oil.
They plan on sponsoring close to land scenic cruises.
Dick, I just spit OJ on my keyboard and monitor. Few get that good a laugh outta me, and you just did!
Heard they are wanting to interview the recently wrecked ferry boat captain.
Now, where are those paper towels?
Kent - That was Exxon Valdez. It destroyed wildlife habitat as well as the lives of many who made their livings there in more ways than one. Exxon made a mockery of it all by paying the affected a pittance followed by a smile along with the finger... Hopefully the jerk responsibe for the Costa Concordia isn't going to get away with his arrogant, patronizing, lying BS the same way.
Wtf. Just blow it up!
It must be worth many millions as scrap........otherwise they are hedging their bets in case it does come apart during the uprighting. Can't believe the salvage value justifies these millions being spent to refloat it. Think if it can be refloated they will quietly tow it off to a shipyard where it will be rehabilitated and of course the name changed. After all it's pretty certain the ship or it's technical gear are not to blame. It was the old "pilot error".
Mr Binke...simple solutions from simple minds! Come back when you're an adult.
He's getting a job with BP, to be captain of their oil tankers in the Gulf of Mexico.
I wondered what would happen to that ship. Make it into an oil tanker.
That's your new toyota
it will more likely be made into thousands of little FIAT's as its in italy !
Hey boys!!! Watcha me drive too close to shore going too fast!!!
Look Ma...no hands.
Actually it was his young mistress he was showing off for. Another middled aged dude that couldn't keep it in his pants.
That's screwed alot of dudes. Look at Edwards and others.
Like Edwards? And Eisenhower and Vitter............Republicans f**k around too, don't they?
just wanted a closer look.......
Don't forget Bill Clinton :-)
Funny how these boards attract some major idiots who have to try to turn every discussion into an attack on politicians.
WTF does this have to do with American Politics?
Damn
Frankly.. It's because politics in the US has deteriorated into the same mentality that people have regarding sports. It's the your team is the enemy and my team is perfect attitude. The only thing important is my team (right or wrong, cheat or not) wins. Bash the other team is the motto, and Americans are too short-sighted to see anything beyond the game.
uhm ... and I know it'll be hard for some posters, may we just for once ...
have a little respect here for the victims' families?
and since when is everyone in such a hurry to get this done?
however long it takes IS however long it will take.
Talking about the ship is disrespectful to the victims and their families? How do you get that???
And why not be in a hurry (a year is a hurry...?) to get it done???
However long it takes is however long it takes??? Are you on drugs???
I also feel bad for the people who live there. Their beautiful coastline has been marred by this monstrosity sitting there for a year, and they'll have to wait 9 more months. A constant reminder of stupidity and tragedy.
Well Amy that is all true...but I would be willing to bet this has been fairly good for their local economy. 400 workers X3 shifts a day, plus housing and feeding them is a lot of jobs. With weekends that is over 1600 full time jobs+Support.
The wreck is in an ecologically sensitive area. The longer it is in place, the greater the risk to the environment. That's the hurry. Obviously, they want to get it done right, but this isn't some "when we get around to it" project.
"However long it takes is however long it takes."
"Whatever will be, will be."
"All purple cows are purple."
All three are equally valid statements -- which is to say they are not statements of facts at all.
Frankly -- that's probably true, good point. Hope somebody can come out of this better off.
Hope their filming this operation... Going to be a hell of a show...good or bad.
60 Minutes did a piece on this operation, which was much more informative than this laughable article. I'm sure there will be a documentary released regardless of how the operation turns out.
WOW, I hope these grammatically challenged commenters can't vote !
their vs they're
your vs you're
to vs too
etc .......
Come down off your high horse and take a deep breath Ed !!!
Don't worry Ed they reason better then they write, that's more then I can say about the average voter in Mn, they don't reason at all they just vote Democrat.
My sister lives in Minnesota & she's a "dyed in the wool" Republican. Carry on!
DBuck, if THAT were true... MN voters automatically voting "D"... we wouldnt have the national disgrace known as Michelle Bachmann. How this is relevant to the Costa Concordia (Well there ARE a few schools named Concordia in MN) I dont know.
D Buck is just another partisan hack. Any opportunity to attack the party he does not support...the other day he went to McDonalds...here is how it went...
Order Taker: Welcome to McDonalds, may I take your order?
D Buck: Democrats are socialists!
Order Taker: Uh Sir this is McDonalds Hamburgers.
D Buck: Obama is from Kenya!
Order taker: OK we will just say you want a Big Mac, do you want Fries with that?
D Buck: Fire Nancy Pelosi!
Order Taker: So that comes to $5.23 please pull forward
Ed in Mn;
Clearly you haven't visited a public school in the last twenty years. That said, Perhaps you have a bit too much time on you're hands if this is the best you can muster, grammatical corrections? Really. Take a closer look at you're next ballot, you will likely be aghast at the mistakes found on them, even misspelled common names, Jonnes- Jones, Williaams, Williames- Williams, etc. What do you expect when those running the show are barely literate. Perhaps, since clearly, you are so very knowledgeable, you should take up teaching, Otherwise, blame those who currently preside over this bad joke of an educational system and the lack of qualified instructors.
Nico, I understand where you're coming from and totally agree with you. I'm not Demoncrap, just happen to live here. It is an embarrassment to have a U.S. Senator such as Franken in D.C. Just another outstanding example of what we elect that got us in this mess.
Ed in MN...like Michelle Bachmann isn't a total embarrassment? Stupidity is not restricted to either party, no matter what your totally partisan brain tells you.
Elipses are only three "periods", you know like ... with a space on both sides.
Not etc .......
It may look like a sturdy ship from the outside, but looks are deceiving. With the amount of material inside, needing to be removed which isn't metal, still underwater, there is much that can damage the ocean. So just hauling it out to sea is not viable. The ship was never designed, as was mentioned in the article, for the stresses in its current position.
What is hidden under water, is the whole side, which is an opened area of multiple levels on the lower decks, exposed to the sea. which literally has nothing for most of the length of the ship. That was the main reason it sunk so fast.
Only on the exposed side, facing upwards is there a solid side on the lower decks. So, it gives people the wrong impression the whole ship has a solid surface going around it completely.
The main reason the idea of taking it apart where it was, was discounted, was due to the weather and difficulty of trying to work with the ship literally on the edge of a cliff. Which could send it sliding downwards. Meaning, it was too dangerous to try to keep it stable, especially if storms struck.It was a better idea to chance getting it upright, and then hauling it off. Using barges to help stabilize it further.
In addition, with all the tourism being affected, they estimated it would hit the area even worse, because it would take more than a 1 year to finish the job.
The idea of trying to restore the ship and use it again has been played around for quite some time. Depending on insurance costs, legal issues and the final outcome of the trial. But the bottom line seems to be, will anyone really want to invest and get passengers to use it afterward.
There is currently projected negative results from meetings on that idea. Hence,just getting rid of the whole ship seems the goal. Our ocean doesn't need more junk. And survivors certainly need no constant reminder of a horrible day in their life, nor loved ones who lost a beloved family member.
Sounds like a description of an ice berg.....
Sounds like too much gov't intervention to get the job done. We must of sent the US's regulators to help.
Wait until the seas rise 3 foot and it will make it easier. 2040 or 50.
Originally the headlines said "Costa Concordia Still In The Water". Well, it's a feckin ship. Where do you think it should be, on shore? LOL This thing is the size of several small Italian towns, so it is just going to take time to salvage it. I hope when it rolls over that it breaks loose and slides to the bottom of the ocean, which is where it should be anyway. Would YOU want to go on a cruise on this boat when it is put back in service?
BacktoBasics....it will be salvaged for the steel, etc. There's millions of dollars worth of scrap metal on that tub! Duh!!! Do you have ANY common sense?
And Backtobasics....in your desired scenario it can leak oil, other fluids and toxic materials for decades. (Remember the USS Arizona is STILL Leaking oil 70 years later)
What a brainy idea you had!
"Engineers working on the massive salvage project -- the likes of which the world has never seen"
Maybe this journalist should check out the salvage operations of various Battleships in WWII, including the flipping of some very large upsidedown ships in Pearl Harbor.
Todays press.........It pays to be ignorant.
I don't think you realize how small those battleships were compared to ships today. The journalist is correct in this case. The Costa Concordia is bigger than the USS Arizona was. We did salvage many Nevada class battleships at Pearl Harbor, but those were small compared to modern cruise ships. For example, the USS Oklahoma was only 583 ft long and 95 ft wide. The Concordia is 952 ft long and 116 ft wide.
The point is virtually every engineering aspect of righting and floating Concordia has been done before on large vessels for over 100 years. Cofferdams? Leverage? Nothing extraordinary, nothing new. So, to me, the phrase the likes which the world has never seen seems to be quite a bit of hyperbole. Kind of like the hottest or coldest year in history......
BKER I think they are referring to the fact that it is teetering balanced on two rock peaks on the edge of a deep water trench.
But articles on the net do tend to sensationalize
I wouldn't have imagined that it would be so complicated/take so much time. A consistent reminder to the families who lost a loved one and an amazing eye sore to the people who live near by.
Well, two ways to get it out of there: 1) get the US Navy on the case and they could surface it and move it, or 2) blow it into peices and then remove the pieces. Seems the cost to remove it will be more than building it. Salavage it instead.
Yeah, smart move. That would spread fuel and other hazardous materials over a large area in an ecologically-sensitive marine reserve.
Given complete freedom of action without concerns about consequences, I'm sure the ship could be removed from sight within weeks. But, there's a large number of complicating factors that have to be managed.
They can't run their counrty or navigate a boat why should they be able to refloat it??
Silly European's !
For all the "Italian Bashers" THe Operation was planned and being run by....
Titan Salvage, which is based in Florida
they know what there doing! seen a story on this...
Just blow it up and remove everything that doesn't sink. It will make a nice fishing reef.
torch it first and burn away half the plastics &oil inside of it first
Burn it? Wouldn't it be better to take it off the shore first? At least if anything, they could send her down to the bottom as a reef. (ehhe) Italy needs another turist trap, so why not a familiar ship wreck? ;-)
the whole show is run by politicians - and you know - they can't do anything - - without first doing a study
where is the village idiot (the captain)? has he been prosecuted ?
the photo would make an awesome cover page for capt schettino's facebook timeline.
What I want to know is why it is so hard to weld on fresh metal to the side of the ship? Get that done in no time, than seel open doors and hatches. Great, here comes the hard part, put water out and air in... badda-bing... its a floating ship.
The ship isn't in a stable area. Obviously, if it was as simple as you describe, the company running the salvage would have applied some American ingenuity and refloated it by now.
It's got a gigantic rock poking through the hull, which it is lying on. There is no way to patch the hole if the rock is in the middle of it.
The Costa Concordia will remain one of the worlds best testiments to drunk driving. Drunk driving in an automobile is the epitome of stupidity,, but an ocean going ship is far too stupid to even imagine. The Captain Francesco Schettino should be tried for the negligent homicide or murder of the 35 people who are known dead or missing.. For him to leave his sinking ship would have to be the worlds best example of cowardice. No one in history has ever beem more of a coward.
BLOW THE Motherf*ker up and turn it into a reef! Who the hell wants to go on a cruise in that pile of crap!
PepYap, the ship still has oil and other harmful material inside it, the ship is also going to be salvaged not repaired. That means the metal is going to be recycled for use in other projects instead of wasted on the ocean floor.
So they have at least 400 workers working 24 hours a day for the last year and it's still not done? So they are putting all of this effort into carefully up righting it in one piece so they can drag it off to be scrapped? The value of the scrap won't even come close to what these 400 workers working 24 hours a day are going to cost.
Then it will get hauled off to a 3rd world country where it will be ran aground on a beach and a bunch of poor scarred up guys and children too who are missing fingers and toes will attack it like a bunch of ants.
They will be wearing nothing more than ragged shorts and sandals and they will climb ropes, maybe rope ladders and they will cut it up with cutting torches while wearing no eye or skin protection and drag it to shore through the surf with ropes one little piece at a time. There will be no environmental protection, no health care for the workers, no workers compensation, no OSHA, no welding goggles, no hard hats, no lung protection or anything.
The workers will live in make shift tents and shanty towns on the beach for a couple of months until the job is done.
The reason it is cheaper to destroy and recycle the ship rather than to repair it is because there are 3rd world countries with cheap labor are doing the salvaging. If they were capable of doing the repair work at the same hour per hour labor cost it would be cheaper to repair the ship.
I believe the Concordia will be dismantled at a European shipyard and not taken to the breakers in Banglidesh or India
Hilarious
The salvage company is getting paid to remove the ship and cut it up in pieces. They aren't selling the scrap to make money, they are getting paid regardless what happens to the steel in the ship.
You see. Some peoples and nations can accomlish things and others can not. If this vessel was in German waters you can better believe salvage procedures would have already taken place. Ahhh Italiano,s. Is it a safe bet to say the wreck will be in exactly the same way a year from now?-)
Wow bashing Italians?
Well Mr Makovich (I would guess Polish) you want to hear a good Polish joke?
Didn't think so
I want to hear one. Make it good.