MADISON (WKOW) — UW-Madison is closing portions of its Mosse Humanities Building due to a structural failure that needs repairing.

The university said in a press release that it would close its first, second, sixth and seventh floors of the building effective at 4 p.m. Friday. The areas will remain shuttered to staff, students and the public until after repairs can be made.

During a tour of Mosse, staff from UW-Madison facilities, the Department of Administration and consulting engineers found that an expansion joint on the sixth floor had failed. This created a “potentially unsafe situation,” the press release said.

The university said it would soon close the affected parts of the building “[o]ut of an abundance of caution.”

The press release claimed that the building had not been heavily used this past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The university did not schedule final exams for the affected portions of the building.

UW- Madison expects to install a fix in time for the start of the Fall 2021 semester.

The university said it does not yet know how much the work will cost.

Concerns about the structural condition of UW-Madison’s buildings have swirled after a concrete slab fell off of Van Hise Hall’s third floor earlier this month.