Grace Palo

WMAL.com

WASHINGTON — (WMAL) The Washington Monument is set to reopen on Friday, until then it will undergo maintenance on its elevator.

The monument, which closed on Saturday, will be closed at least three days longer than earlier estimations, said National Park Service spokesman Mike Litterst on Monday. A faulty bearing caused problems with the elevator Saturday morning before the monument opened. Due to the added time for the closure, they are taking the time to work on other outstanding maintenance issues.

The park service says no visitors were in the monument at the time Saturday and no staff members were affected.

The building closed twice in April also because of an elevator interruption, and in May 2015, an elevator power failure caused a closure that lasted several days. The park service says the current elevator problem was caused by the repeated elevator shut downs in May.