According to the original design, the Eiffel Tower would only stand for 20 years.
When completed in 1889, the Eiffel Tower was expected to stand for 20 years before being dismantled. 130 years on, the tower still stands. However, according to recently leaked confidential reports, the emblem of Paris is in a dilapidated and rusty condition.
The French magazine Marianne claims the tower needs a complete overhaul, but so far it has only been repainted in preparation for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
“If Gustave Eiffel visited this place, he would have a heart attack,” an unnamed Eiffel Tower manager told Marianne.
The 324-meter-high, 7,300-ton iron tower was built for the world’s fair in 1889. The “father of the Eiffel Tower” – architect Gustave Eiffel said preventing the spread of rust was the biggest challenge facing the world. life of the project. He proposed that the tower would need to be repainted every seven years.
“Paint is an essential ingredient for protecting metal structures. Repainting is the only way to guarantee the longevity of the tower. The most important thing is to prevent the start of rust,” wrote Gustave Eiffel.
The Eiffel Tower has entered its 20th repaint, spending about 60 million euros (~ 1,426 billion VND) to prepare for the 2024 Olympics. According to French media, one third of the tower has had its old paint removed and two layers painted. new. However, the work is being delayed due to the impact of Covid-19. In addition, the architect is also concerned that the old paint layer contains very high levels of lead, making rust treatment more difficult than expected.
Experts told Marianne that the paint job was purely cosmetic and that putting new paint on top of old paint only made the corrosion worse. They insist the tower needs to be completely stripped of its old paint, repaired and repainted.
The company that oversees the tower, Sete, is reluctant to ask to close the Eiffel Tower for a long time because tourism revenue will be lost. The Eiffel Tower welcomes about 6 million visitors a year and is the 4th most visited cultural site in France, after Disneyland, the Louvre and the Palace of Versailles. The tower closure due to Covid-19 in 2020 alone cost Sete about 52 million euros.
Marianne magazine also cites a 2010 report that said: “Sete must take a different look at the Eiffel Tower and introduce an entirely new maintenance policy, focusing on inspecting aging metal structures. chemistry”.
A second 2014 report by Expiris, a paint company, found that the tower had cracks and rust and that only 10% of the newer paint on the tower adhered to the structure. Bernard Giovannoni, head of Expiris and author of the 2014 report, told Marianne: “I’ve been working on the tower for several years now. In 2014, I consider it extremely urgent to deal with corrosion. I advised them to peel off the old paint to paint the new one.”
A third report in 2016 found that the Eiffel Tower made 884 errors, of which 68 were deemed to have the potential to affect the “durability” of the structure. Each bug is photographed, numbered and graded by severity.
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