U.S. Navy awards
Texas-based recycler the contract to dismantle and recycle the USS
Independence.
International
Shipbreaking Ltd., (ISL) a scrap recycling company that specializes in maritime
recycling projects, has been awarded the contract to transport, dismantle and
scrap the USS Independence, a Forrestal-class aircraft carrier that was
decommissioned by the U.S. Navy in 1998. The U.S. Navy will pay ISL around $6
million for the project.
ISL, based in
Brownsville, Texas, is a part of the UK-based recycling company EMG Group. The
company has already dismantled a number of other Navy aircraft carriers. Robert
Berry, vice president of ISL, says that the facility is a specialist depot that
can handle larger vessels.
Under the
agreement, ISL will tow the 61,000-ton vessel from its present location, in
Bremerton, Washington, down around the tip of South America, eventually
bringing it to ISL’s specialty processing location in Brownsville. Despite the
widening of the Panama Canal the carrier is still too large to pass through the
Canal.
Berry says the
company expects to start towing the vessel by the end of this year, and the
trip should take around four months. Before embarking on the trip, ISL will
spend several months prepping the vessel for transportation.
Berry estimates
that the dismantling and recycling of the aircraft carrier will be a two-year
project. “There are lots of environmental issues that we need to deal with,” Berry
points out, “including properly handling PCBs and mercury switches.”
Source: recycling
today. 30 August 2016
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