Continuing works at the Forum des Halles, Paris

The Les Halles site originally housed the town's central market.  The market was moved to Rungis in the 1960s, and a major, expensive (and in my view extremely odd) shopping mall was created. 

By the 1990s the mall was clearly inadequate and the buildings were starting to crumble away.  After years of deliberation a radically different new scheme was decided upon.  It was not going to be easy, as most of the shops would have to continue functioning during the works ..... and below them the major underground railway and metro hub had to be improved.

Thousands of workers have been involved in this project for several years, and it is now (believe it or not) approaching completion.  The disruption and noise suffered by local traffic and business has been significant.

The final bill for the city of Paris?  Probably over €1,000,000,000.

PS I had forgotten that I uploaded a blip photo from the same viewpoint last summer.  Fortunately the commentary was on different aspects of the site!