Photo by M.V. Jantzen.

We hope you’re fond of that Walt Whitman quote inscribed along the north entrance of the Dupont Circle Metro station — because you’ll be seeing a lot more of it, starting early next year. Today, WMATA General Manager and Chief Executive Officer Richard Sarles announced that the transit agency would close the south entrance to the busy Red Line station at some point early next year in order to facilitate a total overhaul of the three escalators serving that side of the station.

“While we have made progress towards our maintenance compliance goals and improving the quality of repairs, we need to expand our efforts to give customers the safe and reliable escalators they deserve,” Sarles said in a statement. “Simply put, we need more people power to catch up and recover from years of poor maintenance practices. Metro’s escalators are a prime example of the rebuilding work that needs to be done throughout the system.”

Additional details on the Dupont Circle work — part of a new round of escalator fixes which will cost the transit agency $148 million — will be announced this fall. Escalators at the station’s north side will be overhauled after work on the south entrance is completed.

During a board meeting today, Metro leadership stated that its maintenance compliance rate had increased by 13 percent in 2010, but that’s going to come as little solace to riders who are finding themselves trudging up and down the system’s escalators at a record clip.