A French publication has sounded the alarm based on information obtained from private papers. A charge is being leveled against maintenance in light of the Olympics.
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| [The Eiffel Tower] |
The continued upkeep of the Eiffel Tower in preparation for the Olympic Games that will take place in Paris in 2024 may be "not only the most costly of all time, but also the most ineffective." The monument that is considered to be representative of France would, in point of fact, be covered with rust and fractures, and it would need unusual upkeep that is more in-depth than what the local authorities had planned for it. This information was obtained from private papers that were cited in an article published in Marianne magazine. Who is concerned that the skyscraper may be "in danger of collapsing"?
The Eiffel Tower was built between 1887 and 1889 and is 324 meters tall and weighs 7,300 tons. The structure's eponymous constructor had informed people in charge of the Paris Expo, the event for which it was created, that the building had a "life" of 20 years, after which it would need to be disassembled in order to make room for new construction. But he also added that the tower would only be able to endure the test of time if it underwent routine maintenance on a regular basis in order to combat its biggest danger, which was rust. In light of this, he recommended giving the piece a fresh coat of paint every seven years. When writing on the topic at the time, he said that "paint is the necessary element to maintain a metal structure and the care with which it is done is the sole assurance of its durability."
The Eiffel Tower has been painted a total of twenty times over its lifespan of more than 130 years; the most recent of these coats is now being applied. However, the specialists that Marianne spoke to concur that the redesign that was done before to the Olympic Games did not go far enough to make the building safer. Marianne was informed by a manager of the publicly traded business Sete, which is in charge of managing the monument, that if Gustave Eiffel were to visit the location, he would have a heart attack.
The price tag for the fresh coat of paint comes in at about 60 million euros. However, because of the delays in the construction caused by Covid and the presence of lead in the old paint, we were compelled to make some changes to the designs that we had originally drawn out. According to the charges, the ultimate effect is a kind of cosmetic lifting that is beneficial to the appearance of the eyes but detrimental to the structural integrity of the building. According to a study that was published in 2010, "Sete has to provide a totally new maintenance approach centered on evaluating the old metal framework of the Eiffel Tower." The tower was discovered to have fractures and corrosion in a second examination that was conducted in 2014, and a third report that was conducted in 2016 identified 884 defects, 68 of which are stated to pose a danger to the structure's "durability."
Because of these factors, the Eiffel Tower would need more extensive maintenance, which would result in the prolonged closure of the location, which is now the fourth most visited in the nation. resulting in a decreased amount of money coming in to the Municipality as a whole. Simply to give you an idea, the income loss caused by the involuntary closure of Covid in 2020 was equivalent to 52 million euros.
On the website for the skyscraper, renowned architect, engineer, and historian Bertrand Lemoine presents a perspective that is more upbeat. According to him, the most dangerous threat to iron is corrosion, which is brought on by oxidation from both air and water. But according to him, if the Eiffel Tower gets a new coat of paint, it may endure forever.