WASHINGTON (AP) — A major metro entrance in Washington will be closed for nine months while officials replace escalators at the station.

Metro says the south exit of the red line’s Dupont Circle station will close Wednesday and remain shut through October.

Metro says the existing escalators, which are 188 feet long and take customers from the trains to the street 85 feet above, are among the least reliable of the system’s nearly 600 escalators.

The escalators were originally installed in 1997.

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