Refloating the Concordia

Its called PSI,--pounds per square inch. Just 1 pound per square inch would be more than enough to lift it.

 

I'm on my way to bed after a 12-hour graveyard shift, and don't have time to go digging on this. But if I remember rightly, the Concordia isn't laying on a smooth seabed -- tilted or otherwise. Supposedly she's balanced on some rocks, and could very well head for deeper water if mishandled...

 

"Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri has been contracted to build the caissons or steel watertight boxes to be used to upright and refloat the crippled Costa Concordia, the cruise ship’s operator said July 3."
http://blogs.sun-sentinel.com/south...-steel-boxes-to-help-refloat-costa-concordia/

 

Is the attempt to refloat her merely for salvage or is the plan to place her back into service?

If for salvage, I would have thought it would be easier and safer to stabilize her and strip her of valuables and recoverable material in situ. It is not, as far as I know, a location exposed to violent storms and currents that would make such work too dangerous.

 

My understanding is the Costa Concordia is being refloated to remove her, after which she will be scrapped. Abandoning the wreck was not allowed.

 

As I understand it the boat is sitting on a ledge. Any attempt to correct the list could send it off down the the bottom of an undersea valley. It is for this reason it has to be lifted with list until it floats and list can then be corrected.

This is the core of the complication of what should be a normal salvage of welding some plates on and pumping it as was the case of Pearl Harbour. Many ships were up and running again in this amount of time.
Personally that would seem to me the best way to get rid of it, just let it go to the bottom.

When they do it National Geographic will no doubt be there,-- I cant wait.

 

At Pearl Harbor many of the ships sank straight down - so when the Japanese did the recon they did not think as many of the ships had been sank as actually did - and as noted above the recovery and getting many of them back in service was done in record time - incredible job by our salvage people

 

I think they had a more pressing motive.

 

The salvage was going to be complete by January 2013. Now the completion date has been pushed back until next spring.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/16/2955041/costa-concordia-removal-delayed.html

 

The Concordia salvage is so lengthly that a website has been setup for it. The stabilization involved 450 specialists including 60 scuba divers.

The Parbuckling Project
Concordia wreck removal project informative website
http://www.theparbucklingproject.com/