The Washington Monument covered in scaffolding, in January 1999. (Photo by Leon Reed)

The National Park Service announced today the recipient of the $9.6 million contract to patch up the Washington Monument from the damage it sustained in the earthquake the struck the D.C. region in August 2011.

Perini Management Services, Inc., based in Framingham, Mass., will be in charge of patching up the many cracks and stresses on the 555-foot obelisk caused by the 5.8-magnitude temblor. The monument, which has been closed since the quake on August 23, 2011, will remain shuttered through 2013 and likely well into 2014.

One of the first steps in the extensive repair process will be erecting a scaffolding around the monument. The sight will surely harken back to the monument’s last major facelift in the late 1990s, though it is unknown if this structure will be as artistic as Michael Graves’ light-filled scaffolding during that renovation.

The total cost of fixing up the monument is expected to be $15 million. Half of that came from a donation made in January by the Carlyle Group founder and philanthropist David E. Rubenstein. Congress authorized the remainder.

Perini was the lead contractor on the construction of the James Ingo Freed-designed Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, which opened in 1998.