25TS.1 22PS
Bakong, Tower Number 8:
The ad hoc experts point out that the tower’s lintel collapsed in 2010, with 178 fragments later being collected, reconsolidated and reassembled. The work has been carefully carried out and the experts appreciate the work done by the APSARA stone conservation team.
The lintel, weighing about 4.7 tons, needs to be carefully reset in its original position. This operation is to be done in parallel with consolidation of the part of the monument where it will be set back up.
Restoration of this supporting brickwork, combining old and new bricks (about 10% and involving hidden parts), has been very successfully carried out.
Resetting of the original lintel requires:
– Setting up scaffolding
– Constructing a platform at the level of the lintel
– Raising the lintel and resetting it, after drawing plans and cross-sections, completed by a structural calculation in order to define very precisely the setting and anchorage of the lintel in the brick structure of the tower and reinforcing it with hidden stainless steel dowels.
The design plans and cross-sections are to be submitted to the Secretariat for forwarding to the experts.
The ad hoc experts approve the proposal to rebuild the original brick pediment, now disappeared, above the collapsed lintel based on the model of the three pediments visible on the other faces of the tower.
To ensure the overall stability of the building, they request a further structural analysis including one of the probable options for implementation of a connection between the opposite façades of the tower by putting in tension bars (of stainless steel or carbon fiber).
Lastly, they recommend that an assessment also be made of the general stability of the other brick towers of the same model surrounding the Bakong temple pyramid.