The Costa Concordia cruise ship wreck will be removed in June 2014 from her watery grave on the coastline of Giglio and taken to a port to be dismantled. This represents the final phase of an unprecedented 600 million Euro salvage programme.

The two year anniversary of this tragic event came on 13th January 2014 and a handful of Italian ports, including Piombino, Genoa, Palermo and Civitavecchia, are bidding to take in the wreck and dismantle it for scrap. Ports in France, Turkey, Britain and even China are also bidding for the task. A decision on the winning bid is expected in March.

Fifteen flotation tanks are to be placed along the heavily disfigured starboard side of the ship, which will mirror the tanks on the port side. This should be completed in April and the tanks will be filled with water, and then gradually emptied to provide the buoyancy needed to float the ship off the seabed. Plans to place the wreck on a piggy back ship at the site appear to have been dropped as only “deep water ports” will be able to handle the wreck initially.

Once floating, the Costa Concordia will the towed in a partially submerged state (with a draught of around 18.5 metres) before being positioned aboard the semi-submersible heavy lift ship Vanguard, which is usually used to transport offshore rigs.