Tricolor Wreck Removal Resumes
The wreck removal of the ‘Tricolor’, the vehicle carrier that was lost in December 2002 20 miles off the French coast in the English Channel, will resume May 15. The vessel was cut into nine sections, four of which remain on the seabed. The remaining sections will be lifted and transported to Zeebrugge in the months to come. All the cutting work on the vessel finished last year before the operation was halted in November due to adverse weather conditions. The 1987-built ‘Tricolor’ was lost following a collision with the container ship Kariba. The ‘Tricolor’ was en route to Southampton from Antwerp, laden with nearly 3,000 luxury cars. It also carried some 2,000 tons of bunker oil. The vessel suffered severe damage and she went down in less than half an hour.
Cutting of the Tricolor Starts Today
Weather improvements have allowed salvors in the English Channel to commence work on the wreck removal operation of the Tricolor. Due to bad weather conditions the operation had to be discontinued on July 16. Despite the delay work is still on schedule. After extensive preparations the ‘Combinatie Berging Tricolor' will initiate the first of eight cuts today. The cutting wire will be pulled back and forth with special winches aboard the platforms Vagant and the Buzzard. The Buzzard has been utilised earlier to install messenger wires underneath the wreckage of the Tricolor. Those wires have to guide the cutting wire into position. After…
New Website Focuses on Tricolor Salvage
WWW.TRICOLORSALVAGE.COM, a website that provides information on the development, background and progress of the remarkable wreck removal operation of the Tricolor, one of the biggest wrecks ever to be removed. A consortium consisting of SMIT Salvage B.V., Scaldis Salvage & Marine Contractors N.V., URS Salvage & Maritime Contracting N.V. and Multraship Salvage B.V. Apart from being a reliable source of information for the press, the purpose of the website is to inform interested parties about the challenging wreck removal operation in the English Channel. The CBT will use a specially designed wire cutting system to divide the wreck into nine sections. Thereafter, each section will be lifted out of the water and placed onto pontoon barges for transport to Zeebrugge, Belgium.
