Visitors to the Washington State World War II Memorial in Olympia will soon have a better opportunity to feel the full sacrifice servicemembers from the state made during the conflict.

The Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs has been actively working with the State Department of General Administration to design needed repairs and improvements and construction is set to begin on the memorial Tuesday, the VA announced recently in a release.

The memorial is surrounded by four rows of granite tiles, each engraved with a personal message that provides visitors with an insight into the people and events of WWII. The inscriptions on the 2,945 tiles reflect thousands of lives changed forever by the events of World War II.  The tiles were sold to raise funds that helped to complete the memorial in 1999, and they have since become an important feature of the memorial.

Today however, the majority of the tiles are unreadable and many are cracked or broken, due mainly to weathering and drainage problems at the site, according to the release.

Between June and August of this year, all of the tiles will be replaced with newly engraved pavers that look nearly identical to the originals. The new tiles will be three times thicker with a more durable surface finish and improved engraving that will better withstand the effects of time, water and weather.

The State Legislature provided funding for the project, and the cost is expected to be approximately $135,900, according to the VA.

The bronze 14-foot high blades in the memorial contain the names of the nearly 6,000 Washingtonians who were killed in the war, large granite stones are engraved with major battles fought by year, and more than 1,000 granite tiles are inscribed with personal messages from project donors. The blades, which bend into a form mirroring the shape of the capitol dome that looms behind, each symbolize one of the military units employed in the war and features shadowy images of servicemen.

Beside the bronze blades, a winding river of 4,000 metal wheat stalks extends eastward. These stalks were originally intended to represent each of the state residents thought to have died in the war. However, during the time of the memorial's construction, state officials identified an additional 2,000 casualties. Therefore, the wheat field now collectively represents all those who died in the war. The wheat stalks were made from melted torpedo railings used on old U.S. warships, donated by the Bremerton Naval Shipyard. The wheat is interactive in the sense that the stalks have been "tuned" to produce a perfect "A" note when one of them is plucked.