Crews have separated the latest section of the Golden Ray as the operation to cut and remove the wreck stretches into its fifth month.
The St. Simons Sound Incident Response reports that Section Two was separated from the wreck on Monday just seven days after cutting began, marking an improvement from the previous three cuts. Section Two will now be lifted onto the Barge JULIE B and moved to facility at Mayors Point Terminal in Brunswick, Georgia. Once secured for ocean transit, the JULIE B will depart Brunswick for a ship recycling facility in Louisiana.
“Section Two was cut and separated in seven days without any unplanned stoppages” said Incident Commander Chris Graff of Gallagher Marine Systems. “The speed of this cut was a result of the structural characteristics of the section combined with the cutting technique and pre-cutting operations.”
Crews working on the wreck removal of the Golden Ray have resumed cutting operations after a slight delay to conduct maintenance to the cutting apparatus.
Cutting operations resumed early Wednesday morning to separate Section Seven, which will be the third section of the wreck to be cut off and removed. Cutting of the section began in late January, but the operation was put on hold after a joining link connecting the cutting chain to the pulley system failed, causing the chain to fall into the cutting groove on the topside of the wreck. No injuries were reported as a result of the failure.