France’s culture minister says the melted, twisted scaffolding atop the Notre Dame Cathedral will be removed “in the coming weeks” to allow restoration work to begin.

Franck Riester says conservation work would take several more months, along with parallel work to evaluate the building’s soundness.

He denied that the French government had been slow to recognize the potential harmful effects of the lead that melted from the cathedral’s roof. And he says health experts were taking regular samples from areas around Notre Dame to check for lead.

It’s been six months since an April 15th fire gutted the medieval structure, which was under renovation at the time.