Tugboats and dredges are operating at full speed to unseat the container carrier “Ever Given” blocking the Suez Canal from Tuesday, one of the world’s major commercial routes.
The 224,000-ton ship is 400 meters long – the equivalent of four football fields – and is stranded diagonally between two banks of a 205-meter-wide canal. More than 200 ships are waiting in the area to resolve the blockade, which could continue for days or weeks if progress is made.
The strategy adopted by the ship’s operator, the Suez Canal Authority (ESGreen Marine Corporation), was to dig around the area where the “Ever Given” bow was trapped and return to normal waterways. When operating special dredgers, using large tugs, cables, or placing yourself near a mega ship, try to get out of the sandbanks near the two banks.
Operator Evergreen deployed rescue workers from the Netherlands and Japan to assist in resuming operations. But so far, these attempts have failed because “Ever Given” seems to be firmly in the sandbanks.
Dredgers stopped removing sand and mud from the area near the ship’s bow on Friday night (local time), and Lt. Gen. Osama said in a statement that tugboats were attempting to “spin ever again”. , SCA Head.
“This is a complex technical operation that will require several attempts to free the ship,” the person responsible for managing the Suez Canal said in a statement, Associated Press (AP).
Sal Mercogliano, a marine history specialist at Campbell University in the United States, told the BBC Network that the operators of these dredgers are used to operate in the Suez Canal because of the continuous increase in depth. Use the channel to keep it navigable.
In addition, there is now a “suction dredge” capable of removing 2,000 cubic meters of earth and silt every hour. Boscalis, a special Dutch company, manages the dredging operation.
Trapped laterally in the Evergreen Channel, it formed a large sea transport
However, Boscalis chief executive Peter Berdowski believes that excavation alone will not solve the problem. “It can take weeks depending on the situation,” he said.
If the strategy fails, rescue teams will have to lift weights from the ship, abandoning fuel and ballast water, which will help balance the ship. The company in charge of the ship’s technical management, Bernard Schultz Ship Management (BSM), said some of the interior of the boat’s hall was flooded. It uses high capacity pumps to remove it.
Using cranes to remove the 20,000 containers that Meganavio is shipping is a more challenging and time-consuming option, experts say, which could take weeks.
“By comparison, if you put 20,000 containers in Evergreen [em aviões], You need 2,500 cargo planes [Boeing] 747, ”Tim Huxley, chairman of the board of directors of Mandarin Shipping Ltd. in Hong Kong, told the Wall Street Journal.
The operation may become more complicated as time goes on, explained APNick Sloan, a specialist who led the operation in 2012, which included the Costa Concordia cruise. Although built to be flexible, ships like the “Ever Given” are not designed to remain stationary and load for long periods of time.
“The longer it takes, the worse the condition of the ship will slow down,” Sloan said. “Ships are designed to be flexible, but should not be kept in that position for weeks at full load.”
Mercogliano added that in addition to the structural problems that can occur if dredging is not carried out, the removal of the cargo itself poses risks. “You need to determine how this will affect the stability of the ship,” the expert said. “The worst part is that it breaks in half because of the supply [desigual] Weight. ”
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