The first phase of the Costa Concordia dismantling and recycling project has been completed nine months after the wreck arrived in Genoa Italy.
Over 5,700 tons of materials have been removed (furniture and internal structures) from the ship in order to obtain the necessary draft to transfer the wreck from the breakwater of the Prà Voltri Port to the Port of Genoa Ex Superbacino area, the Ship Recycling Consortium, formed by Saipem (51%) and San Giorgio del Porto (49%), informed.
The Consortium is now waiting for the formal authorization of the transfer to the Superbacino area which is planned for May 10. The wreck will be towed to its final resting place for a distance of about 10 miles, where it will be decommissioned.
“Weather and sea conditions are a key factor for the definition of the exact date of operations and for this reasons different weather forecast services are active to identify the best weather window starting from next week, ” the Consortium said.
As explained, the final journey is expected to take place over 24 hours that include exit manouvres from the Prà Voltri breakwater, navigation – expected to last about 11 hours – and the entrance manouvres in the ex Superbacino area of the Genoa Port.
Costa Concordia sank in January 2012 killing 32 people.
The grounding of the cruise ship, carrying 4,252 people at the time, is believed to had been caused by the captain’s recklessness, as the ship came too close to the Giglio island where it got stuck and later collapsed.
Image: Ship Recycling Consortium