Skip to footer

Contractor picked for earthquake-damaged Washington Monument

Perini Management Services Inc. of Framingham, Mass., beat out two other bidders to win a $9.6 million contract to repair earthquake damage to the Washington Monument. The marble and granite obelisk has been closed to the public since an earthquake shook the region in 2011.

|
Alex Brandon/AP
American flags fly below the Washington Monument, Wednesday, Wednesday, in Washington. The Washington Monument was damaged and has been closed to visitors since the August 2011 earthquake.
  • By Brett Zongker Associated Press

| Washington

The National Park Service named a Massachusetts contractor Wednesday to repair the Washington Monument's earthquake damage, though it may take two more months before work begins at the National Mall site.

Perini Management Services Inc. of Framingham, Mass., beat out two other bidders to win a $9.6 million contract that includes extensive repairs to the monument's stonework. It will involve building massive scaffolding around the 555-foot-tall monument, sealing cracks inside and out, repointing the mortar, cleaning the exterior and strengthening weak spots with metal brackets. The total cost of repairs, including work already completed, is $15 million.

Federal officials said the contractor's parent company was the prime contractor for the construction of the Ronald Reagan Building, Washington's largest federal building. The contractor's team also includes firms involved in a restoration of the monument completed in 2000.

"We are again one step closer to getting this important landmark reopened to our visitors," said Robert Vogel, superintendent of the National Mall and Memorial Parks.

The marble and granite obelisk has been closed to the public since a 5.8-magnitude earthquake shook the region on Aug. 23, 2011. The upper portion of the monument sustained large cracks when it shook violently during the quake. It will likely remain closed to visitors until 2014.

Park service project manager Michael Morelli said gaining access to the tall monument is the most difficult portion of the project.

"The actual repairs to the monument are actually the easiest portion of the work," he said.

Within about 60 days, work will begin at the site to begin building the scaffolding. That alone will take four to five months, said Brian Labbe, who will serve as construction manager for Perini Management. Scaffolding will likely be built inside the monument's top pyramidion, where some of the worst damage was found.

Once work begins, the project will take 12 to 18 months to complete, officials said.

Congress allocated $7.5 million to pay for repairs. In January, Washington businessman David Rubenstein pledged another $7.5 million.

The monument was completed in 1884 and was the world's tallest structure until 1889, when the Eiffel Tower was built. Vogel said it remains the tallest freestanding stone structure in the world.

"The monument," he said, "is one of a kind."

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Contractor picked for earthquake-damaged Washington Monument
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Latest-News-Wires/2012/0926/Contractor-picked-for-earthquake-damaged-Washington-Monument
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe