Gustave Eiffel knew to construct his monument from a long-lasting material: puddled iron ( wrought iron ), but there is still a dangerous enemy always lurking in the background: corrosion. In total these paint layers have reached three millimetres in thickness and 350 tons in weight. The Eiffel Tower Exploitation Society (SETE for its French acronym), the public society responsible for its management, once again faces the challenge of keeping the monument open to the public while carrying out repainting works, but complicated by the commitment to first remove the previous layers of paint from 10% of the tower’s surface. With 2019 marking the 130th anniversary of its inauguration, Paris is preparing a further renovation of its appearance, although this time with several added difficulties: the previously superimposed layers of paint make the weight of the structure excessive, impede the strong adherence of a new layer and also contain a very polluting element: lead. The civil engineer himself warned : “We will most likely never realize the full importance of painting in the conservation of metal works and the more meticulous the paint job, the longer the Tower shall endure.” S ince then, the Eiffel Tower has received this special care for its skin, with one complete coat of paint every seven years on average. The most-visited paid monument in the world is preparing for the most complex painting campaign in its history, a delicate ritual that has been carried out 19 times since Gustave Eiffel delivered the work in 1889. Annual Report and Individual financial statements.
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