Chinese ship recycling facility will take in an obsolete drydock last
used by the U.S. Navy in 1999.
The U.S. Coast Guard enforced a safety zone for a project that involved
the shipment of a large San Francisco drydock to China for recycling. The
safety zone was set up around the heavy-lift vessel the M.V. Tern, which helped
ship out a drydock used by the U.S. Navy from 1942 to 1999 from the Port of San
Francisco to a ship recycling facility near Shanghai.
Drydock #1, which weighs around 4,200 tons, was lifted by the M.V. Tern,
a semi-submersible heavy-lift vessel that partially sinks itself so cargo can be
floated over its cargo deck. The Tern then de-ballasts to lift the cargo out of
the water to complete the heavy-lift operation.
The San Francisco-based drydock is 128-feet wide and is slightly wider
than the Tern. The Coast Guard enforced a 500-foot safety zone to ensure the
vessel was effectively able to conduct its heavy lift operations.
The Tern was expected to depart San Francisco by the end of October and
is destined for a recycling facility near Shanghai.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Port has
attempted to sell the drydock several times since it was deemed unfit for
service in 1999.
The project to ship the drydock to China was subsidized by the U.S.
Department of Defense and cost $6.8 million--$1.5 million less than the
original estimates.
Source: recycling today. 3 November
2014
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