Is the Eiffel Tower in a worrying state due to lack of maintenance?

The Eiffel Tower threatened by a lack of maintenance? The unions, who launched a strike on Monday during the school holiday period, made this the strong argument for their demands. According to the CGT, the Eiffel Tower Operating Company (Sete) and the Paris town hall, driven by a “search for profitability at all costs and in the short term”, are abandoning the monument. “It is in an advanced state of deterioration, in terms of rust,” said a representative of the union on BFM. The fee paid by Sete to the town hall, which should increase to 50 million euros per year, should not help matters according to the union.

On social networks, the photographs of corrosion stains posted by visitors, and relayed by Saccage Paris activists, speak for themselves. Emmanuel Grégoire, first deputy mayor of Paris, may insist that the tower is "under constant renovation", no one knows which way to turn.

The Eiffel Tower is built from puddled iron, a material whose longevity is almost eternal as long as it is properly protected. From the birth of the tower, in 1889, Gustave Eiffel had insisted on this point. “We cannot fully believe in the principle that painting is the essential element in the conservation of a metal work and that the care given to it is the only guarantee of its duration,” he indicated in his work La Tour 300 meters. The engineer estimated at the time that the brushes should be taken out every 7 years.

“This has been done since in 130 years, the Eiffel Tower has already been repainted 19 times,” underlines the chief architect in charge of the monument and its maintenance, Pierre-Antoine Gatier. To tell the truth, the contemporary period has seen the tempo slow down: the twentieth campaign started 11 years after the launch of the previous one. It is still not completed, since it was organized in two stages, in order to provide a break during the Olympic Games.

According to Pierre-Antoine Gatier, the twentieth painting campaign was however delayed, not for financial but technical reasons. “After the period of health crisis, which disrupted businesses, we were confronted with the problem of lead paint, the management of which has been, since the fire at Notre-Dame de Paris, under very close surveillance,” testifies the general inspector of historical monuments.

The site, which employed 50 painters and several specialized companies, was also stopped in its tracks in 2021, for eight months. Time to put procedures in place (nets collecting paint flakes, waste management, protective clothing, showers, worksite fragmented by zones, etc.). It was about protecting visitors, but also artisans and passers-by. These procedures caused the bill to skyrocket, initially estimated at 50 million euros, and which is now around 85 million.

The companies have now left the site, although the Iron Lady is only partially repainted for the time of the Olympics. “The tower being the image of France, we favored the exterior parts, and in particular the one overlooking the Champ-de-Mars,” explains the architect. The indoor parts will be resumed after the Olympic Games, in 2025 and 2026.” It is in these areas that rust is most visible today. She distresses Pierre-Antoine Gatier, but does not alarm him. “It’s not because the paint is peeling that the monument is out of breath,” he assures. And it is not through lack of maintenance that rust appears, but under the effect of sand, pollution, rain and UV rays.” The architect has also ordered surveys on one of the facades: under the 19 layers of paint previously applied, “the puddled iron is in impeccable condition,” he says.

With these different campaigns carried out since 1889, the weight of the paint layers is estimated at 350 tonnes. It is impossible to strip everything, especially since the monument remains open 7 days a week. “The six million annual entries make it possible to pay for the restoration,” indicated La Sete, in March 2023. We therefore understand that it There is no question of permanently closing the doors to combat rust. We therefore have this paradox of a monument regularly undergoing work, but whose restoration is an eternal beginning.