The work is at least two months behind schedule, and to have the removal completed within the end of the year is now a matter of prestige for the contractor AF Decom, NRK reports.
The plan is to drain the sea bottom around the wreck by using jetties and then cut the vessel in pieces on the dry bottom. The jetties are now in place, but unexpected leakages have caused problems for AF Decom.
Watch the removal operation on-line here
- It will take at least three weeks to seal the cracks in the jetties, and another month to empty the dock of water, site manager Øyvind Omnes says.
The Norwegian government has allocated nearly 360 million NOK to the removal of the wreck of the Russian cruiser “Murmansk”, which ended its days in the rocks outside Sørvær on the coast of Finnmark in December 1994. The cruiser was being tugged southwards for scrapping when it tore away during a storm and has since been to a lot of nuisance to the local population.
