By
Rebecca Gibson |
Costa Concordia’s removal from Giglio may be postponed until 22 July due to weather and sea conditions, was well as the complexity of the refloating operations.
On Thursday 17 July, divers were delayed by strong winds as they tried to connect the remaining chains and cables to the sponsons attached to the side of the ship.
On Thursday night engineers lowered the starboard sponson S12, enabling the ship to be lifted another metre and reach an average refloating of 4 metres. Divers worked overnight to connect the chain to sponson S18, which is currently being lowered into its final position by the Remote Operation Center team. Over the next few hours, engineers will continue to lower the other starboard sponsons and then move the pontoons to Concordia’s bow area to connect the last chain to sponson S4.
Despite the delays, technicians are aiming to tow the wreck from Giglio on 21 July as scheduled, but are also considering 22 July as an alternative. Concordia will be towed to the San Giorgio del Porto shipyard in Genoa over the course of four or five days. The ship will then bedismantled and recycled during a four-phase, 22-month project.