San Giorgio del Porto and
Saipem has completed a project to dismantle and recycle Costa Cruises’ stricken
Costa Concordia, which hit rocks and capsized off the coast of Giglio Island in
Italy on 13 January 2012 killing 32 people.
Costa Concordia was
initially raised to a vertical position during a 19-hour parbuckling operation
on 17 September 2013. The vessel was then left to rest on an artificial seabed
in Giglio to allow the Titan-Micoperi team to carry out stabilisation work in
October 2013. Refloating operations began on 14 July 2014, and the ship was
towed to Genoa, arriving on 27 July.
In one of Europe’s biggest
and most important green ship recycling projects to date, up to 350 employees
from San Giorgio del Porto, Saipem and 76 other companies (98% of which were
Italian) have spent around one million hours (almost three years) recycling the
ship.
Around 8,000 tons of
material has been dismantled and over 53,000 tons has been recycled –
equivalent to 90% of the ship has been recycled.
“The success of these
operations represents an additional recognition of the high value of Italian
naval engineering, while demonstrating the importance of a ship recycling
activity that is respectful of the environment and of the safety of workers, in
accordance with the most recent European regulations,” said San Giorgio del Porto
in a press release.
Source: cruise
and ferry. 10 July 2017
