Test lift this week for Napoli wreck removal

Earlier this year, the salvor Global Response Maritime successfully positioned 12 lifting chains under the wreck and is now making preparations to lift the remaining hull section to the surface for demolition and recycling.

Two barges rigged with heavy mobile cranes have already arrived on site. The lifting chains will then be connected to the two lifting barges.

It is anticipated that the wreck will be removed from the site by the end of August 2009. A temporary exclusion zone (TEZ) of 500m around the wreck remains in place.

Hugh Shaw, the UK Secretary of States Representative in Maritime Salvage and Intervention (SOSREP) said, ‘The two 140m barges have heavy mobile cranes and a series of 24 chain-pullers which have already been installed. On arrival, the lifting chains already in position will be connected to the chain-pullers. The two lifting barges will be moored parallel to Napoli’s stern and when preparations for the main lift are complete, the barges will be ballasted down to compensate for the forces acting on the pullers and reduce movement in the swell.

‘Weather permitting a test lift may take place on 2 or 3 June. If successful, lifting and cutting will then commence. MCA aerial surveillance flights will continue to patrol the area on a routine basis.

‘The contract includes the total removal of the stern, including the main engine, together with delivery of all scrap to the recycling facility of Scheepssloperij Nederland at Gravendeel in the Netherlands. However I will not give sign off to the project until a final underwater inspection and demobilisation of equipment has been completed.’