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Workers have begun reconfiguring the construction site at the fire-ravaged Notre Dame Cathedral to comply with strict coronavirus restrictions after the outbreak halted operations last month.
Key points:
- Showers and cloakrooms will be spaced out to comply with COVID-19 restrictions
- Workers will also be put up at hotels so they can avoid public transport
- The cathedral is at risk due to scaffolding installed before the fire that melted in the blaze
Monsignor Patrick Chauvet, the rector of the cathedral, said work began on Monday to make the site compliant with social distancing rules.
Crews had been unable to work on the site since tight control measures were introduced in mid-March.
That included re-arranging showers and cloakrooms to allow more distance between workers and installing a place for workers to eat because restaurants in France are currently closed.
Monsignor Chauvet said most workers would stay in nearby vacant hotels so they would not have to rely on public transport.
"It's true that we have lost a month and a half," Monsignor Chauvet said.
He said the first task, once work gets fully underway, was to remove the tangle of metal scaffolding that melted in the fire.
The 250 tons of scaffolding had been installed for a prior renovation project and the unstable metal structure now endangers re-building.
"It's a difficult job. It requires the climbers to be calm," Monsignor Chauvet said.
"We can't have COVID there to cause them stress."
The clean-up work itself is scheduled to gradually resume next week.
Fire engulfed the 850-year-old building on the banks of the River Seine on April 15 last year.
The fire destroyed the cathedral's spire and roof and, according to officials, came within 30 minutes of razing the building to the ground.
French President Emmanuel Macron promised to rebuild within five years but work so far has been slow.
The coronavirus outbreak is the latest in a string of setbacks for the repair works, plagued by toxic lead released by the fire, winter storms and searing heatwaves.
But Monsignor Chauvet said the project was on track to meet Macron's five-year deadline.
"That doesn't mean that all of the restoration will be completed, but it means we will be able to enter again into the cathedral," he said.
Despite the delay, the general in charge of the reconstruction said he still wants to stick to ambitious plans to hand the cathedral back to the Catholic Church in 2024, when Paris is set to host the Olympics.
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