Dave Grecho of Titan Maritime sets up a track cutter on a steel leg of a salvage barge. A cutting torch will make a beveled cut all around the leg so two pieces can be welded together in the coming weeks. -World photo by Lou Sennick

The Karlissa A and Karlissa B are being prepped like prize fighters.

Titan Maritime’s two jack-up barges, which will serve as the work platforms for the removal of the shipwreck of the New Carissa, arrived from the Dominican Republic last Saturday. They have four to six weeks to work up the challenge. Round one is scheduled to start May 15.

Phil Reed, Titan’s director of engineering, hopes gloves will touch a bit sooner. His goal is to have the imposing barges with their gargantuan cranes and beach staging site ready by May 1.

All that will be left then will be the wait for good weather. Reed said Titan needs calm seas to take the barges out to the New Carissa stern, preferably swells of no more than 3 feet. The barges, once ready, will be docked at Sause Brothers Ocean Towing Facility in Empire to wait for perfect conditions.

“We are not going out there unless it’s a really nice day,” Reed said.

It wasn’t a nice day on Feb. 4, 1999, when the wood chip ship ran aground.

Nine years later, Titan gets to clean up the remains. The May 1 start date may be a little ambitious, considering how much work remains to be done.

The huge steel tubes out at Central Dock in Coos Bay are the legs of the barges. The giant tubes, each originally 150 feet long, were cut up for transport into three pieces — two 60-foot-long pieces and one 30 feet long. Crews will weld the two bigger pieces together to provide the needed height for the project. Each leg will be jammed 30 feet into the sand to stabilize the barges near the wreck. Putting the legs back together again is the biggest project on Titan’s to-do list in the next couple of weeks.

The Karlissa B’s 300-ton-capacity crane, nicknamed “Big Red,” is in the process of being repaired and repainted before installation on the barge. The other towering red crane at the dock next to the two barges will be placed on the Karlissa A.

Titan is using local businesses and resources for the prep work.

West Coast Contractors of Coos Bay helped put together the crane at Central Dock. Reed said Titan enlisted that crew to do more work on the barges.

“I’m just glad to be working at home right now,” Karlissa B crew member Jason Snelgrove said Thursday.

Snelgrove was working in Newport when the New Carissa’s bow ran aground near Waldport in March 1999, after the towline snapped as it was being pulled out to sea. He hasn’t been out to see the stubborn stern section yet, but may have the opportunity while working with Titan on the removal.

“However long they will have us, we will stay with them,” Snelgrove said.

Knutson Diesel and Machine is fabricating the 31-foot-tall tower that will connect the barges to the beach staging site, approximately 1,000 feet away from the New Carissa. The tower connection will be via an overhead cable car line. Crews and equipment will travel back and forth from the barges in the 6-ton-capacity car.

The staging area construction won’t begin until near the end of this month, after the last of the required temporary permits are issued. The staging area will include a temporary bypass road around the work area to allow alternate access to the North Spit.

Once work starts, the New Carissa will be taken apart a little bit at a time.

Deconstruction

Titan crews will cut up the vessel’s stern and remove the pieces using the cranes. Cutters will detach most of each piece of metal, but leave a 6- to 8-inch piece called a hanger so the cut can be secured to the crane. Once the pieces are rigged to the crane, the hanger will be cut and the metal transferred to one of the barges. Each piece will then be “flat packed,” cut to a size and shape that is easier to store on the deck. Reed said Titan intends to cut, process and store all the scrap metal on the barges until the job is done.

Crews will start working on the top of the wreck. Reed said that will be the easy part and may give onlookers the impression the job will be done fairly quickly.

“In the first couple of weeks, you will see a big difference,” he said. “The steel on top will be easy.”

Dealing with what is underneath, including the 250-ton main engine, will present the real challenge and take the most time. Still, Reed anticipates the work will be done well before the October deadline.

As crews work on the top portion, six pulling machines connected to the New Carissa by bulky anchor chains will pull on the wreck. Reed said the New Carissa may move right away under the pulling power or stay put until some of its bulk is hauled off. Pullers will progressively lift the New Carissa out of the sand.

“We are actually going to bring the bottom to us, rather than go down and work in conditions that are near impossible to work with,” Reed said.

Titan’s contract with the state stipulates crews can leave the portion under the sand line, but Reed said Titan is aiming at leaving no portion behind.

“For us, that is harder,” Reed said “We would rather follow the plan.”

To slice the wreck off at the sand line, a diver would have to cut while in the surf, a process which can be dangerous and inefficient, Reed said. The movement of the surf will prevent an even cut and divers could possibly be injured in the process.

A summer work window was chosen because of the favorable weather, but if nasty weather strikes, crews shouldn’t be stalled completely. The barges should be secure, no matter what is thrown at them, Reed said. Strong winds could shut down the cranes and possibly the overhead cable car.

If wind does prevent use of the cranes, workers can work on cutting the scrap pieces to storable sizes or work on removing sand from the wreck.

“We won’t be completely shut down unless things get really bad,” he said.

Though the Titan’s plan includes being as weather-independent as possible, the New Carissa’s location does present unique challenges.

Reed, who has worked with Titan since 1993, first as a consultant and, since 2000, as a full-time project engineer, said he hasn’t worked in these particular conditions.

“This is first time I’ve been in such an active surf zone,” he said.

Titan has been following the attempts to haul off the New Carissa from when it first ran aground. He thinks using the stable jack-up barges may be the answer to the stuck stern. Titan crews have had experience with large wrecks and have worked in surf zones, but the question remains as to how quickly crews can work with both challenges.

“We’ve cut up wrecks bigger than this,” Reed said. “But not one sitting in the surf zone.”