Safety is always #1 for the Ocean Builders crew and when it comes to big projects like mounting the EcoPod onto the floating TriPod, the more safety the better.
This is not the most simple thing that we will do. The lift that we use to raise the EcoPod up and over the TriPod can only go so high. And the higher we go, the more unstable things get so we want to keep the Pod as close to ground level as possible.
To avoid lifting the Pod up, we will lower the TriPod in the water. We will basically sink the TriPod a little bit lower than the normal floating position so that we can get the EcoPod mounted. This is the first time that we have done this and the first time that something this heavy will be mounted to the TriPod so we want to take some extra safety precautions.
We will have these large airbags on standby in the event that the ballast tanks need some extra muscle to refloat the structure to the proper level. We will have six of these airbags mounted to the base so that if needed, we can inflate them to add buoyancy to the structure. The entire thing weighs about 17 tons so there is definitely a risk involved with partially sinking it and then refloating everything.
Of course, we don’t expect to need to use these airbags, but we want to take every measure that we can to make sure that we do things safely and have a backup if needed. This is a very exciting yet stressful time but we know it’ll all be worth it when we see the EcoPod floating comfortably above the water!
