It's smelling better and better. The report from the public inquiry into the demolition and then construction of the Hermitage twin towers has been released by the authorities. The authorities gave their assent to the demolition and construction methods (detailed at great length in the document) submitted by the Russian developer. Demolition and construction will mainly proceed via barges on the Seine River, given that the towers will be built alongside the river.
France not being the sort of speculative country where construction of a building is stopped half way up, if the developer went all the way to submit and obtain an authorization with the detailed methods of demolition and construction outlined, it means he really intends to build these towers.
You can see the full report from the authorities detailing the demolition and construction methods here:
Pages 1 to 11:
http://www.prefectures-regions.gouv....2093303351.pdf
Pages 12 to 27:
http://www.prefectures-regions.gouv....2093354394.pdf
Pages 28 to 38:
http://www.prefectures-regions.gouv....2093436915.pdf
In the document, we can see that the developer even agreed to change his construction method so as not to interfere with the boring of the RER E subway tunnel that will be bored between central Paris and La Défense during the same years that these twin towers will be built (i.e. 2017-2022). So it's looking frankly as deadly serious as it's ever been.
