A contractor is repainting and repairing the World War II memorial in the front of the Kekuanao‘a Building in downtown Honolulu.

The state Department of Accounting and General Services has hired Society Contracting of Honolulu for the $95,000 project on the 18-foot-tall, 20-foot-wide memorial behind the busy bus stop at the corner of South King and Punchbowl streets.

The memorial, which was designed by sculptor Roy E. King and completed in 1944, was repainted seven years ago, the department said. The current project is to remove the lead-based paint and repaint the memorial.

Work began Aug. 8 and was expected to take two weeks. But additional work was needed after workers discovered termite damage to the wooden portions of the memorial.

The termite-damage repairs added $5,000 to the original $90,000 project cost.

Painting of the memorial will resume in about two weeks, Dean Shimomura of the department said in an email.