Notre-Dame emerges from the steel grid

The scaffolding was set up around the ridge of Notre-Dame to restore the roof. Fire used in this renovation led to the disastrous fire that destroyed part of the medieval building.

The removal of the scaffolding would initially start in mid-March. However, this was not possible due to the corona crisis. Now it’s safe enough to get back to work and disassemble the twisted steel around the top of the church.

The delicate work is performed by two teams of five people. They wear harnesses and hang the metal tubes from ropes. It concerns a total of 40,000 tubes.

The pipes are then lifted to the ground with a 84-meter high crane. A spokesman for the renovation project speaks of an ‘open heart operation’.

Huge safety nets are stretched around the construction site. And the team members wear mouth masks because of the coronavirus. France recently relaxed some of the corona measures, but the risk of contamination remains.

In order to reduce the risk of the scaffolding collapsing, the construction has been further reinforced in recent months. After the scaffolding is removed, engineers can investigate how much the roof and the structures in the ridge have been affected by the fire.

The church on the island in the Seine is intended to be largely restored by 2024. It is expected that Paris will receive millions of visitors because of the Olympic Games planned in the French capital.