Following a collision in the approaches to Antwerp in December 2002, the car carrier TRICOLOR had to be removed from the bottom of the North Sea.
The “Combinatie Berging Tricolor” was created from SMIT, SCALDS, MULTRASHIP and URS. Bernard Vivegnis was the quality and safety manager of URS at the time. He was tasked with making and implementing all pollution prevention plans of the project. URS was bringing not only their Salvage management team and fleet, but also the specialised diving outfits “Diver” and “Van den Akker”
Captain Vivegnis was regularly present on site for planning and audits. He was also constantly in contact with the engineering departments of all parts of the consortium and at the site office in the former maritime school in Oostende, memories from his own studies there in 1979-80.
As the only member of the consortium management who was a native French speaker, Capt Vivegnis also handled a lot of the communication with authorities and press in France and Belgium. It was a blessing at the time that he speaks fluently all three working languages of the project: French, English and Dutch.