SCAFFOLDING will be erected around Sheffield's Park Hill flats next week as reconstruction finally gets underway - almost 18 months after work began.
Urban Splash, the developer signed up by Sheffield Council and English Heritage, made the announcement as the BBC prepares to screen a documentary tonight recounting the challenge to bring Europe's largest building back to life.
Simon Gawthorpe, managing director of Urban Splash Yorkshire, said: "We've pared the northern block right back and are now at a stage where we can put it back together.
"On Tuesday, we are due to start putting scaffolding around the northern section. Then we will start re-roofing and concrete repairs, before external cladding is put on."
The first flats are set to be completed at the end of next year. Work on the other buildings will be carried out in three more phases over the next five years.
When finished, there will be 900 apartments, compared with 1,000 previously. The lower storeys will be converted into bars, restaurants and shops and a hole will be punched in the frontage facing Park Square to provide an entrance from the city centre.
Questions have been asked about a lack of noticeable work at the flats but Mr Gawthorpe said initial phases involved stripping the inside of the buildings.
Then, after demolition of the old brick and concrete outer walls, rubble was moved to a central area on the site, visible from City Road, to be crushed then removed - a process again almost out of sight.
All that remains of the north block is the concrete shell, the outer edges of which have been decaying. A small number of tenants still live in the south-west area.
Mr Gawthorpe said the shell is in "good condition for its age" - but revealed repairs to all four sections of the complex could still cost £5 million.
Around 100 people were involved in demolition workand a similar number will work on the next phase, Mr Gawthorpe said.
Large-scale changes to the look of the building, including replacing external brick walls with aluminium and glass cladding, and creating the hole, have led to be questions about why the building was listed in the first place.
But Mr Gawthorpe said: "It will still be recognisable as Park Hill, with its concrete grid and streets in the sky. Concrete balconies will be restored. The design aimed for a balance between architectural integrity and making a change so people would want to buy."
Mr Gawthorpe said finances for the project are sound, despite the credit crunch hitting Urban Splash's income to the extent it asked for a portion of £40 million in Government funding for the scheme to be paid early. The revamped flats will be a mixture of owner-occupied, shared-ownership and housing association.
Mr Gawthorpe said tonight's BBC2 documentary at 9pm, called English Heritage: Romancing The Stone, "charts a difficult time".
He added: "It'll be interesting but I wish they had continued filming to see the work get underway."
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