The cleaning, dismantling and removal of the Victoria wreck by Koole Contractors began last Friday.
The ship had severely damaged a home on Lady Fish Street in SandyGround during Hurricane Irma and has remained there since the natural disaster, turning the surrounding area into an open dump and turning the wreckage into a landfill. The service provider company in charge of removing the sailboat, which is around 5,5 meters long and weighs around 4,23 tonnes, namely the Dutch company Koole Contractors, was chosen by the Collectivity within the framework of the “Bateaux Hors d'Usage” market ( BHU)” to clean up the wrecks on the French side. For a contract worth 140 million euros, 55 million of which come from European funds with the aim of removing 30 abandoned wrecks and creating six permanent jobs for six young people from Saint-Martin in integration, XNUMX wrecks have already been withdrawn from Saint-Martin waters, dismantled and transferred to the eco-site since May XNUMX. The Victoria sailboat, whose owner has been stripped of his rights, will therefore be added to the list. Alain Richardson, Senior Vice President of the Community in charge of Economics and Resources, visited the Koole Contractors team on the construction site, talking with the employees about the procedure to be followed and the progress of the lagoon cleaning.
The professionals began with the wooden mast of the Victoria, rickety and rot-ridden, removing it and cutting it in place. The employees of Koole Contractors then tackled emptying the interior of the boat to proceed shortly with the removal of the engine, a delicate maneuver which required the cutting of part of the hull to facilitate access. All recyclable or polluting materials will be extracted and taken to the Dutch company's treatment site.
Two weeks will be necessary for the Koole Contractors team to finalize the dismantling of the Victoria, the pieces of which will then be removed by a barge and complete the complete clearing of the site. With a census of 123 new wrecks or dangerous objects in the waters of the territory, the hard work of cleaning will therefore continue, with the creation of eight additional jobs for a few specific operations. _VX
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