The renovation and reconstruction of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris after the destructive fire of 15 April 2019 reached a turning point this week.
The cathedral was undergoing renovations to the roof when the fire occurred, so there was a lot of scaffolding which melted in the fire. This week the removal of the final portions of the melted scaffolding led French Culture Minister Roselyne Bachelot to declare that the landmark cathedral was saved. This means that crucial protective and stabilisation work can now proceed.
Work began in June 2020 to clear away the 200 tonnes of tangled scaffolding tubes that surrounded the cathedral's roof, threatening to destroy the 13thcentury Gothic cathedral.
The cathedral walls withstood the intense blaze, but the extensive heat and loss of much of the oak roof framework compromised its structural integrity. The molten scaffolding – about 40,000 metal tubes – was left coated with ash, dust, and debris, and was suspended metres above the cathedral's floor. It was at risk of crashing to the ground.
The removal of the melted scaffolding was considered dangerous, with some experts fearing that it could cause more of the Gothic monument to fall down. It was also thought that the scaffolding might have melded to the cathedral in the blaze, and be keeping the walls in place.
Jean-Louis Georgelin, the army general overseeing the restoration, confirmed on Tuesday 1 December 2020 that the cathedral had been saved: "The threat this scaffolding posed to the cathedral has been lifted. Now we can tackle the final safeguarding steps." The long phase of securing and consolidating the cathedral will continue until the summer of 2021.
Before removing the damaged scaffolding tubes, workers had to enclose them within a new network of scaffolding to ensure that the mangled mesh of tubing would not move. Another metal grid was then erected so that workers could be lowered in by ropes to carefully cut the tubes apart. The collapse of a single piece could have threatened the stability of the entire weakened edifice.
Sections were then lifted out by a crane towering 80 metres (260 feet) above the cathedral. In late October 2020, workers were finally able to reach and stabilise a massive beam that threatened to drop into the transept.
The renovation work has been slowed by the coronavirus pandemic, which brought work on the site to a standstill during France's first Covid-19 lockdown in March and April 2020.
In July 2020, French President Emmanuel Macron said the spire, which broke and collapsed during the fire, to spectators’ shock, would be rebuilt to its original form, bringing to a close the controversy over its restoration. President Macron had initially called for a "contemporary" restoration of the spire during the rebuild.
President Macron has vowed to have the Notre-Dame Cathedral restored in five years – by 2024, the year that Paris will host the Olympic Games. However, some architects have said that such a massive restoration and reconstruction could take much longer than five years.
MARTINA NICOLLS
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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
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