Though they librate as much as 60,000 tons , the massive semi - submergible oil rigs dotting the Gulf of Mexico can still sink when face up with a hurricane ’s attack . And there ’s only one way to pull the rigs ’ 7,500 ton deck off the seafloor after such a cataclysm — with America ’s heaviest - lifting ship , the VB 10,000 .
Designed by the Versabar corporation ( based off the party ’s previous ponderous weightlifter , theBottom Feeder ) and retrace by Gulf Marine Fabricators in Ingleside , Texas , the $ 100 - million VB 10,000 is a heavy - lift catamaran that mounts a pair of massive lift gantries atop a pair of flatboat . Perhaps massive is a bit of an understatement .
Each gantry evaluate 240 - feet tall and weigh 3,400 tons — or about as much as the Ben Franklin Bridge in Pennsylvania . The lighter both mensurate 300 foot by 72 feet and each is power by a quartet of 1,000HP thruster which also appropriate it to remain stationary over the job site . And to prevent the motion of the ocean from affecting the the lift , the VB 10,000 utilise a stage set of enunciate tholepin to connect the gantry to the barges . To perform the existent lift , four 2000 - ton lifting blocks are attached to the oil colour rig deck by divers , who also trim back off the tractor trailer ’s legs , and are then pulled to the surface by the vessel ’s space 400 - short ton winches and deposited on the back of a waiting hoy for conveyance back to interface .
found in October of 2010 , the VB 10,000 has already log over 40 lifts — everything from underwater debris retrieval , to topside decommissioning , to jacket removal and reef . And with the vas ’s new prehension devices , the VB 10,000 will be capable to clean up the some 1,800 rigs US regulators have take for necessary for removal in the next tenner .
ably named “ The Claws ” , these underwater cosmetic surgery devices are exactly what they sound like , gigantor pair of pincers like what you ’d find in a carnival plot or a Gizmodo Gallery . Each independently - function claw bill 122 - foot marvellous , 112 - feet wide , and weighs 1,000 tons . They can also be used in junction with a set of cradle which are sink to the seafloor ahead of a nipper airlift . The detritus is first loaded into the cradle then the the provenience itself is raised . This keep the claw accidentally frizzle a a multi - million buck rig deck of cards as it ’s recovered . [ Versabar – Offshore Magazine – gCaptain – PopSci – Images : Versabar ]
How the VB 10,000 was build
The VB 10,000 sans the Claws
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