After a six-week pause because of the coronavirus emergency, work resumed today on Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, with workers still clearing away the remains of the fire while decisions are made on how to rebuild the damaged roofs and stabilize the walls.
When the work stopped in mid-March, it had already fallen behind schedule because of the amount of very careful work needed to remove tons of toxic lead particles deposited when the lead-covered roof melted. After that work, the next step will be to resume dismantling a tangled web of scaffolding tubes that fused together above the cathedral, blocking a start on rebuilding the roof, which is temporarily covered with tarps.
French President Macron continues to repeat his goal of restoring the huge 12th century church by April 2024, the fifth anniversary of the blaze that destroyed the roof and steeple. The army officer who is in charge of the work, General Jean-Louis Georgelin, has not openly contradicted Macron, but has hinted that the work would not be finished by then, although parts of Notre-Dame might re-open by then.
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