Tubesca-Comabi participates in the last phase of the restoration work of the Reformed Church of Marseille

Local companies have teamed up with TUBESCA-COMABI, the French leader in the manufacture and marketing of access and working at height solutions, to meet the challenges of this restoration. The 3rd and final phase of this project is underway with the reconstruction of the four interior turrets.

Originally called the Church of the Reformed, the Church of Saint-Vincent de Paul, perched at the top of the canebière, was built from 1855 on the former chapel of the Reformed Augustins. Neo-Gothic in style, it is protected by the Supplementary Inventory of Historic Monuments (ISMH) (facades and roofs) and classified as a Historic Monument (MH) for its great organ. Since the 30s, the church has experienced successive incidents, disorders and temporary work and consolidation campaigns until 2015.

A technical, safe and aesthetic restoration

The works entrusted to a consortium of seven companies began in 2019. Divided into three phases, they should be completed in March 2023. All the interventions consist of redoing identically to restore the facades of the church to their original state. . Phase 1, from 2019 to early 2021, restored the two large spires located on the west facade.

The challenge consisted in ensuring the stability of the arrows while restoring them to their original state by reconstructing the sculpted elements.

For the second phase of the works, which started in February 2021, the companies worked on the restoration of the nave located between the main facade and the crossing of the transept. For these first two phases, the companies worked together to restore the exterior envelope (masonry, cut stone to preserve the facades, pinnacles, channels and roofs).

Finally, the 3rd phase of work began in January 2022 with the objective of restoring the transept, the choir and the reconstruction of the four turrets to the right of the gable walls of the transept.

Feedback on the technical and tailor-made solution of Tubesca-Comabi

The site presented many technical constraints. It involved completely covering the building with scaffolding capable of ensuring the supply of equipment at each stage, the circulation of the various trades and being able to be assembled and dismantled according to the various phases. Finally, the constraints were also external with the great frequentation of the place by believers and visitors, the dense car traffic, the narrowness of the streets for the monitoring of the construction site and the compulsory access for the firefighters.

TUBESCA-COMABI and its partner SPE worked together for the entire assembly and dismantling of the scaffolding.

The solution chosen for this project is the class 6 (600 KG/m2) multidirectional M368 scaffolding, one meter wide, which has made it possible to cover 100% of the geometric and architectural forms of the church, and facilitated access to various trades that have intervened for the restoration.

250 tons of material were used to build this structure and reach its maximum height of 44 meters for the integral reconstruction of the spiers. The supply of the material was done via two elevators.