Mission Possible?

1. Raising The Costa Concordia
Here's the ingenious $400 million plan to
deal with the wrecked Costa Concordia

3. In January, 2012. the cruise ship Costa Concordia
struck a rock off the shore of Isola del Giglio,
off the coast of Italy, in the Mediterranean
30 people on board the largest passenger wreck of all time lost their lives; two
are still missing.
Nearly a year later, the wreck is still sitting off the Italian coast, mostly
submerged.
Because the Costa Concordia is in a nationally protected marine park and coral
reef, it must be removed from the area before it can be dismantled, posing
countless difficulties.
A CBS reporter visited the wreck and recounted the remarkable salvage
operation, which has a $400 million price tag.
Not only is it the riskiest, most complicated, and most expensive salvage plan
ever undertaken, but no one is sure if it will work.
The ship weighs 60,000 tons and is filled with seawater.

4. It is sitting on two underwater mountain peaks.
65 per cent of it is below the surface.

5. The wreck is an official crime scene

6. The plan is to rotate the ship upright,
and onto an underwater platform

7. Then it will float up, leaving more of its
structure above the surface

8. And it can be towed away

9. Before getting on the inclined ship, workers
must take a 4-day mountain climbing course

10. The underwater platform is being built in northern Italy .
The steel must be transported through the Adriatic Sea,
around the boot of Italy and up to the wreck

11. The steel that makes it up weighs three
times as much as the Eiffel Tower
It will be embedded in the seafloor

12. The drill bit will be enclosed in a large tube, to keep
debris from contaminating the protected area

13. For now, the ship is held in place by steel cables,
but strong storms could dislodge it.
Then it would sink to the seafloor, making the
salvage operation near impossible

14. 111 salvage divers are currently working on the salvage
operation around the clock, in 45-minute shifts.
They attached the cables holding the ship where it is

15. They all live in floating barracks,
next to the wreck site

16. How exactly will workers rotate Costa Concordia onto the platform?
The plan essentially involves "welding a new ship onto the shipwreck"

17. That new "ship" will consist of huge, hollow steel boxes

18. Called sponsons, the biggest are 11 stories tall

19. 9 will be welded onto the exposed side of the
ship, with just 2 inches between them

20. Then steel cables will connect the
sponsons to the steel platform

21. Hydraulic pulleys will pull the
'Costa Concordia' upright

22. More sponsons will be welded onto
the other side of the ship

23. Once the ship is upright, the extra
buoyancy should make it float

24. The ship will be floated next summer.
Once the process begins, there is no way to stop it,
even if something goes wrong!

25. The backup plan is to break it up where it lies,
at a huge cost to the local environment

26. If all goes well, the 'Costa Concordia' will
be cut up for scrap, far from Giglio.
It is so large, the process will take 2 years

27. Watch this space!