Washington Monument Repairs a Few Weeks From Starting

Repairs to the Washington Monument are still a few weeks away from beginning.

The National Park Service says crews are more than halfway done with putting up a fabric scrim, which will create a grid pattern that simulates the look of rectangular stones. Workers are also in the process of stringing lights onto the monument and hope to flip the switch next week.

Back in March, crews scaled the 555-foot structure to assemble the 6,000 scaffolding pieces protecting the monument. They finished the scaffolding May 15.

The monument was damaged during a 5.8-magnitude earthquake in August 2011. It has been closed ever since. Repairs are predicted to cost about $15 million.

Once the fabric scrim and lights are in place, crews will remove loose pieces from the monument and repair cracks. 

"So one of out important tasks will be to develop a good mortar mixture that allows the stone to perform and still have some flexibility and really allow the building to breathe, if you will," said James Perry with National Park Service Resource Management.

The repairs are set to be completed some time next year.

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