Over half of the metal that was part of a grounded cargo ship in Cedar Cove has been removed, broken down, and shipped by barge to Stephenville. The MSC Baltic III weighed in at 10,700 tonnes and 5900 tonnes is being scrapped at Newco Metals. Mara DuVernois is the Project Manager for Resolve Marine, the company handling the wreck removal. She says there have been a lot of operations to set up and get to this point including running out the chains, connecting and moving the ship closer to shore to be cut into pieces.
While everything to this point has been sent by sea to Stephenville, DuVernois says they will soon start a roadside operation using dumptrucks to haul metal away. She says people will soon see Newco trucks hauling metal from the site and they have speed controls, weight restrictions, and safety standards with respect for the road.
The Canadian Coast Guard’s Bruce English was on site not long after the vessel lost power and ran aground on February 15th of last year. He says monitoring of the area for tar balls and oily sheens continues by air and ground, and residuals that are still onboard will be cleaned before the metal is shipped. He says tanks are mid-ship towards the stern.
English says by barging over half the metal, it means less wear to the road. He says there was concern about trucks hauling the metal but each barge moved about 400 tonnes on average.
While the number of people working on site changes depending on the job at hand, there is currently a crew of about 60 working 24 hour shifts.
