Dive Brief:

• Damage assessment and meticulous repairs were needed after an earthquake that hit the East Coast in the summer of 2011 damaged the marble-clad masonry of the Washington Monument.
• Engineers clambering over the obelisk took iPads up with them to compare damage they found with digital mapping of what was found in monument repairs in 1999 and 2000 and noted what kinds of repairs would be needed to each area.
• The National Park Service hopes that it will be able to reopen the monument to visitors this summer, and officials were relieved to find that the structure, which was not built with reinforced masonry, handled the shaking pretty well.

Dive Insight:

For the quake repairs, Perini Management Services brought in companies that had worked on the 1999 and 2000 projects to expedite the submittal process for the current job. One challenge they faced was places where Dutchman repairs required piecing in new marble rather than only patching cracks. Quarries from which marble was taken when the construction began in 1848 were long closed, but the team was able to reclaim marble in Baltimore that had come from the same geologic formation.