The Parthenon Restoration Project

At The Conco Companies, we have extensive experience as commercial concrete contractors and have been fortunate to be involved in many noteworthy structures built over the last several decades.  As some of our projects have been pretty amazing achievements even for modern times, we got thinking about some of the world’s remarkable projects built many centuries in the past.  One such project is the Parthenon, which is a part of the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. 

Built between 447 - 438 BC, although some of the decorative features were not completed until 432 BC, the Parthenon has been under renovations for more than 30 years.  In fact summer 2016 will be the first time since 1983 that tourists will be able to see the temple without scaffolding. 

The decades-long $90 million repair and restoration project is expected to be fully completed in 2020.  So why is it taking so long to complete the project when the original structure was built over a period of only nine years?  Led by the Greek architect, Manolis Korres, he states that the project is like “trying to assemble a 100,000-ton, three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle with 70,000 individual pieces.”   Also the team has struggled to find the proper balance between reassembling the temple and leaving it as a majestic ruin.

One of the difficulties of the project has been to undo mistakes made in the past such as during an earlier restoration in the late 1800’s to the mid-1900’s that incorrectly rebuilt parts of the structure.  Korres’ project has included taking apart and repairing almost every piece of the Parthenon.  Another challenge has been to locate original pieces, some of which were spread around the Acropolis site while others had been removed and were in other parts of the world.  For pieces the team could not locate, they had to be recreated.   

Other problems in the large undertaking include determining where each piece goes, finding a source of marble to match the blocks and then shaping new pieces, and employing age-old techniques to finish the marble surface.  Furthermore, since the column drums had been incorrectly replaced during the earlier restoration process, today’s team had to work out a system for realigning and correctly placing the drums.  The end product will be a testament to the survival of the two and a half thousand year-old ruin.     

The Conco Companies have built a reputation on superior concrete formwork, reinforcing, place and finish, shotcrete and other ancillary services that benefit from our vast experience.  Conco’s concrete services include commercial, educational, parking and other construction development along with public works projects and highways.  Our four regional offices serve California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, and Nevada. 

Source: pbs.org/wgbh/nova/parthenon/rest-nf.html