Engineers began constructing a giant dome to place over a leaking oil well in the Gulf of Mexico to contain the growing spill threatening the US coast. Essentially, this dome would be placed over the leak; instead of the oil leaking into the water column, it will leak into this dome structure. The dome would capture or gather the oil and allow it to be pumped out of that dome structure through pipes and hoses into a vessel on the surface. If you could picture a half dome on top of the leak and the oil collects inside of this dome and is pumped out from there that is the idea behind it. The dome would be similar to welded steel containment structures called cofferdams used in oil rig construction. This is the first time this had ever been done. This idea didn't exist until now. It had never been fabricated before.