The effort to dismantle the ill-fated Costa Concordia continues in Genoa, Italy with approximately 200 technicians now working to cut up and remove all fittings and structures from the vessel.

According to the latest update from the Ship Recycling consortium released Wednesday, the lightening of the cruise ship has allowed the removal of the first giant steel sponsons that have provided buoyancy for the wreck since it was refloated in July 2014.  The update said that what started from the top decks down, cutting operations are now taking place on decks 8 to 7 while stripping is down to decks 2 and 1. 

Once that work completed, crews will begin to remove all external structures from the ship, including all 30 sponsons, and seal the hull so that what’s left of the vessel can be transferred to dry dock for demolition. 

Check out the photos of the ongoing operations below:

Photos above courtesy the Ship Recycling Consortium

Photo below posted by someone on our social media shows the Costa Concordia as of November 10th. You can see how much progress they are making on the upper decks:

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