A rehabilitation project is starting this week on the Korean War Veterans Memorial, and by the time it’s done in more than a year, the monument will include a Wall of Remembrance similar to the Vietnam memorial.
The National Park Service and the Korean War Veterans Memorial Foundation said in a statement Monday that work on the 25-year-old memorial will continue until the summer of 2022. The memorial will stay open during the work, but some areas won’t be accessible.
The Wall of Remembrance will include the names of 36,574 American servicemen and more than 7,200 members of the Korean Augmentation to the United States Army who died in the Korean War. The wall will encircle the Pool of Remembrance.
Among other changes, two new pedestrian paths will be built to the memorial from Ash Road and Independence Avenue; engraved names of participating countries and casualty figures will be replaced with stainless steel; the stainless-steel statues will be replaced; the linden trees around the Pool of Remembrance and the juniper trees in the Field of Service will be replaced, and lamps and irrigation will be updated.
The project will cost about $22 million and is being funded by donations from Americans and Koreans, the park service said.
