It was already complicating the major painting campaign, which began in the fall of 2018 to rid the monument of the 19 layers added for 130 years, and restore luster to its "brown Eiffel Tower".
The lead.
The enemy, decidedly, whose presence was not a surprise in the multiple layers of more or less cracked color that cover the Eiffel Tower, but which is proving more difficult than expected to eradicate without nuisance.
The 20th painting campaign was suspended last month, in the midst of the stripping phase of the upper parts of the Iron Lady, and this has nothing to do with the pandemic which is also plaguing the monument's accounts.
The company operating the Eiffel Tower (Sete) had to resolve to stop everything because the technique used caused a fine but toxic rain of leaded scales, scattered in the air and falling to the ground.
The nets were not enough to retain the residue
“All the paints used before 1995 contained it,” recalls the operator, “For the first time in the history of the monument, a pricking and scraping technique was chosen, on nearly 30% of the surface of the building, where previous campaigns predicted only 5%.
This technique consists in removing the deteriorated layers using ice axes and spatulas, in order to improve the adhesion of the paint on the structure.
This was one of the methods identified to best protect the tower from the risk of corrosion, and in the long term from weakening of its structure.
"
Its drawbacks have become apparent in use, despite an organization of the site under high protection, with partial confinement and permanent measurements of the ambient atmosphere.
The previous painting campaign took place in 2009. / LE PARISIEN
"We tried to contain the fallout from lead by laying triple mesh nets in particular, but that was not enough to prevent deposits on the ground," explains a representative of Sete.
And on February 3, despite all the precautions taken from the design of the site, we noted a recurring increase in samples revealing levels of lead on the surface, within the enclosure of the monument.
"
60 million euros to repaint it
A layer of lead fatally suitable for exploding the thresholds set, and regularly checked, by the Regional Health Insurance Fund of Ile-de-France (Cramif) and the labor inspectorate.
"As a precaution, we ordered the companies in charge of the work to suspend the painting site," confirms Sete.
There was no question of exposing the 80 or so workers from the large stripping site (led by the Prezioso-ERI group) or the employees present, even occasionally, in the monument, despite its closure since October 29, 2020.
Nearly five months of closure, at the heart of a calamitous year which will have cost the Eiffel Tower a deficit of 52 million euros.
The board of directors therefore met this Friday morning in a necessarily gloomy atmosphere, between operating losses, the impossibility of planning the reopening and bad news on the work front.
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The only stripping and refurbishment project in Pantone brown represents nearly 60 million euros, out of the 300 million euros engaged in the most ambitious renovation campaign launched for more than forty years for the monument, which has celebrated its 130 years old last year.
Find another technique to deplete
And now ?
“We have to find the right working method, this will delay the site, but there are possible procedures that will allow complete and safe unloading.
Test sites will quickly be launched.
At the same time, we have increased the frequency of checks: they are now weekly, out of 70 points instead of 50 previously.
"
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Careful and anxious to avoid any controversy, Sete officials also asked that the results of samples taken near the monument be published on the site of the Regional Health Agency (ARS) of Ile-de-France.
