Photo by joelogon

Work on the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial will likely not be done by the 50th anniversary of the March of Washington later this month.

The Associated Press explains the holdup:

Executive architect Ed Jackson Jr. told The Associated Press on Monday that a disagreement arose over the past 10 days over how to sandblast and refinish the stone where an inscription was recently chiseled away.

The side of the memorial’s “Stone of Hope” has been left unfinished because the main contractor, Worcester Eisenbrandt Inc. of Baltimore, doesn’t have insurance to complete the sandblasting with steel pellets, the way it was originally created, Jackson said.

Sculptor Lei Yixin, who plans to leave D.C. on August 20, is “furious” that the work is unfinished, Jackson told the AP.

Lei began work last month to remove the controversial “drum major” quote from one side of the memorial. The National Park Service estimated that the work would cost between $700,000 and $800,000.

His son Ke Shi told the Post he doesn’t understand why the NPS won’t let his father do the sandblasting. NPS spokeswoman Carol Johnson told the paper Park Service specialists may do the sandblasting under Lei’s supervision.

Johnson told the Post the scaffolding may be taken down for the August 28 event, adding that attendees would probably not notice that the work wasn’t complete.