The restoration of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris is ready to move on to its next phase, with a big sigh of relief, as the last of 200 tons of melted temporary scaffolding were removed from the building.
The scaffolding, part of the repair work that was going on before the April 2019 fire that devastated the building’s roof and spire, was a big question mark in the restoration; some engineers believed that it either had melded with parts of the structure, making removal impossible without further damage, or that parts of the building now rested on the scaffold remains, and would collapse without it.
Work on restoring the historic building has been held up repeatedly; one halt was required to remove lead dust and residues from the area around the building, and pandemic lockdowns have also interfered. President Macron’s initial claim that the building would be fully restored by the 2024 Olympics is now clearly off the table, replaced by a plan to at least have religious services restored in the building by then.
