Photo by Jim Havard.

The Washington Monument just faced some more bad news: the National Park Service can’t figure out what’s wrong with the elevator, and so the iconic building will remain closed.

“We have not been able to determine the causes of the ongoing reliability issues,” said NPS spokesperson Michael Litterst in a statement. “As a result, we have made the difficult decision not to reopen the Washington Monument until we can modernize the elevator control system.”

This is just the latest entry in the saga of the city’s most beleaguered lift. The monument has been closed since August 17, when the elevator’s compensating cable broke loose from the car, briefly trapping the NPS employee on board. While no tourists were on the elevator, 84 people had to walk down the monument steps.

At that time, NPS said that the Washington Monument would close for at least 10 days to inspect and repair the lift, and warned that the site could close for several months to perform a full rehabilitation, which NPS says could cost between $2 to $3 million.

Earlier in July, NPS repaired the elevator after a mechanical failure, forcing a temporary closure of the monument. The building closed twice in April as well due to elevator issues.

Washingtonians have become accustomed to D.C.’s famous obelisk being shuttered. Following the 2011 earthquake, it underwent three years of repairs and modernization before reopening to visitors in 2014.

Since then, though, the elevator issues have persisted. D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton has pushed for NPS to complete the full modernization of the lift by tourist season next year.

Litterst said that the timeline is still unknown until engineers can figure out what exactly is plaguing the lift. “The scope of work to be accomplished while the monument is closed and the duration of the closure are still being determined.”

In a statement today, Norton said that the “timing of this indefinite closure of the Washington Monument could not be worse. With the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, we have thousands visitors in town and on their way who will be unable to visit the Monument.”

Updated with comment from Congresswoman Norton.