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Big Ben’s famous clock will appear in time for it to do its most important yearly activity: marking the start of the New Year for thousands of people on London’s streets and millions more watching on television. The clock tower of Britain’s Houses of Parliament has been hidden in a repair project for over four years. Hundreds of workers are involved in the effort to fix the structure built in 1859.

 Nick Sturge, project manager for Sir Robert McAlpine’s special projects, said removing the scaffolding was an important step in the $107 million project. Scaffolding is a movable structure on which workers stand or sit while working high above the ground. “By New Year people will start to see a big difference; they’ll start to get their tower back,” he said. “The roofs will be fully visible along with the four clock faces.”

 The repair work includes replacing parts of the clock faces using handmade glass, Sturge said. The dial’s hands, numbers and other details have been repainted bright blue rather than the black long familiar to Londoners. Sturge said an early painting of Big Ben showed a color that was confirmed by a paint study to be Prussian blue.

 Big Ben is an internationally-known symbol of London and Britain’s parliamentary democracy(议会民主制). It is also one of the most photographed places in the city. The building was called the Clock Tower until 2012 when officials re-named it the Elizabeth Tower in honor of Britain’s Queen. The tower’s Great Bell, or Big Ben, marks the turning of the year with twelve strikes. That will be powered by an electric motor on January 1.

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