Two Aberdeen firms have applied North Sea skills to help salvage the stricken Costa Concordia cruise ship in contracts worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Haulage firm Grampian Continental recently completed a six-figure contract to transport specialist equipment that was used to raise the vessel out of the water.
The Kinellar-based company used 15 trucks to drive the equipment from the dock in Italy to storage units in Holland.
The work often required a police escort due to the size of the loads, while the firm also arranged all the specialist permits required.
Business development manager at Grampian Continental, Ben Gracie, said: “Working with the salvaging operation of the Concordia, has provided Grampian Continental with a great deal of experience, due to the size of the project and all the permits and legal requirements that we had to adhere to.
“As we have facilities across Europe, we already had the fleet to complete the job, but we had to overcome the challenges of Italian authorities and, of course, respect the sensitive issues surrounding the vessel salvage operation.”
The haulage firm, which was launched in 2009 by directors Gavin Murray, Neil Bremner and Michael Lacey, has another four bases in Newcastle, Great Yarmouth, Holland and Italy.
Offshore rental firm Ferguson Group has said its accommodation service vessel, the ASV Pioneer, is now available to let again after it completed its role in the £492million removal and salvage operation.
The vessel has been on the contract in the Mediterranean since October 2012, providing offshore accommodation for up to 90 team members plus deck space for diving spread and specialist grouting equipment.
Mike Melville, Commercial Director at the Ferguson Group, said the salvage mission “demonstrated that the vessel is an extremely flexible solution for offshore projects, across a wide range of industries and many global locations”.
The doomed Costa Concordia hit a reef off Giglio island on January 13 2012 and sank, killing 32 passengers and crew.
The hulk of the ruined ship is expected to be raised in June where it will then be moved to be scrapped.
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