REPORTAGE
This is an unusual project that begins in Paris: the decontamination of the entire neighborhood surrounding Notre-Dame, polluted by the 400 tons of lead smoked on the night of the fire on April 15. A project that will be done without the confinement under the bell of the cathedral, which some unions and associations demanded. Work that has started has been delimited into phases and zones. In total, nearly 10,200 m² must be decontaminated by various processes. Europe 1 has gone on site, where the whole neighborhood will be closed in the coming weeks.
Curly City Street
The work should really begin in two days, according to one of the heads of the two decontamination companies, but the workers are already laying the barriers to fence the street of the City, delimiting an area of about 3,000 m² closed to the circulation of passersby and motorists. During the construction period, the RER station Rue de la Cité and Parvis Notre-Dame will be closed and bus routes diverted.
In the coming days, a dozen workers will aspire the street at very high power, then pass a stripper product that can take off the lead dust. Finally, the decontamination will end with a high pressure rinsing allowing immediate recovery of water by suction.
[Reportage] A yellow container and pipes have just been deposited close to the Rue de la Cité, announcing this morning the beginning of the cleaning of the lead of the streets near Notre-Damehttps: //t.co/9PoYJsAlfp
By @ JLdeLaVaissiere # AFPpic.twitter.com / fi3LJZgMX8
For traders around the site, there is no particular instruction. Nora, second-hand bookstaller on the docks, still took the lead in a blood lead test. "I wanted to know if I could continue working or not, and if it really had an impact on my health," says the shopkeeper. "I did it alone, without a prescription, I had a normal lead in my blood, I'm reassured, I'll do it again if I'm worried after everything is cleansed," she added. .
End of work in September
Decontamination companies are aiming to finish cleaning this portion Friday, August 23. They will then go to rue d'Arcole in late August, with the same process. Finally, the workers will attack the forecourt of Notre Dame last. At the foot of the monument, it will be impossible to pass the karcher because the area is too fragile. The workers will then use a gel that absorbs the lead dust. The application of this layer of gel should last one day. It will then need to dry for three days and will be phased out, which should take at least five days.
At the end of the operations, a control of their efficiency will be made. According to the police prefecture, the work will last until 23 August. The companies think rather finish the whole cleaning in mid-September. It will succeed only on one condition: to have a mild weather, because in case of rain the workers are obliged to stop their work.
The cleaning work had been expected for several weeks already, while the City of Paris was criticized by several associations for not having revealed the extent of contamination and taken too late precautionary measures. Suspended at the end of July because of the need to assess these risks, the gigantic rescue site of Notre-Dame should resume on August 19th. It will be gradually, perhaps only in September, that it will resume at full speed.