The repainting of the Eiffel Tower for the 2024 Olympics has been halted after high levels of toxic lead were released with the stripping of its original 19th-century coat.
Managers of one of the biggest overhauls undertaken on the 132-year-old tower are rushing to devise new methods and safety measures to meet the 2022 deadline for it to be returned from brownish tones to the more golden hue it wore for nearly half a century from 1907.
An unhealthy level of lead has been deposited on the surroundings since two dozen painters began last year cutting through the 19 coats to strip the original red anti-rust paint that Gustave Eiffel applied to his new tower. “We knew that there was lead but between the preliminary studies and the reality of a work site, there is often a margin,” Patrick Branco Ruivo, head of Sete, the tower’s management company, said.
The repainting is more extensive than the normal coat that is applied every seven years to the wrought iron structure that now carries 350 tonnes of accumulated paint.
Usually 5 per cent of the surface is stripped but this time the target is 30 per cent to ensure a better finish and more protection from the elements, particularly on the side facing the Champs de Mars park.
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Experts have been called in from the site of Notre-Dame cathedral, where a fire two years ago resulted in hundreds of tonnes of dangerous lead dust falling from the burning steeple and roof on to the surrounding streets. “We’re going back to the drawing board all together to find the solution,” Branco Ruivo told Le Figaro newspaper.
The renovation must be finished next year to leave time for the redevelopment of the Trocadéro-Eiffel Tower quarter that will be central to the 2024 Olympics.
Workers in contact with the Notre-Dame site are obliged to apply stringent measures to avoid the lead, with some of them taking up to six decontamination showers a day. Some companies involved in the Eiffel painting believe the planned precautions may be excessive. “The whole of Paris is full of lead. Overdoing this means our costs going up,” one firm said.
The new gold-tinted hue, known as “jaune-brun”, was the one Eiffel applied to the tower in 1907 and remained until 1954 when it was given a red-brown tone that lasted until 1968. The choice of the original “Venice red”, as it was called, was one of the reasons that the new tower caused shock and dismay among many Parisians when it opened for the universal exposition in 1889.
The tower, which is the world’s most visited paying monument, has been closed to visitors since November 1 under coronavirus measures.
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In time for the Olympics, the city of Paris is to build a permanent vast garden linking the Trocadéro, on the Seine right bank, to the tower opposite across the river and running all the way to the École Militaire.
The idea is to build a “greener more seamless” experience for the millions who visit the district each year and to attract back the Parisians who steer clear of one of the city’s densest tourist zones.
For the games, a temporary stadium is to be built just in front of the tower to stage the beach volleyball competitions.
