Pentagon Reconstruction: Triumph Over Terrorism
By Linda D. Kozaryn
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, March 11, 2002 -- Six months after terrorists
slammed a hijacked jet into the Pentagon, the charred,
gaping hole in the building is gone and new five-story
walls have risen from the ashes.
Two American flags fly atop towering yellow construction
cranes more than 150 feet above the site where 184 persons
died. Whenever work crews reposition the cranes, these
banners of freedom take the lead, ruffling in high winds
overhead.
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Reconstruction of the Pentagon continues on
March 5, 2002, as a countdown clock tracks the time
remaining until Sept. 11, 2002. DoD photo. (Click photo for
screen-resolution image.)
(Additional photos)
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To many, restoring the Pentagon has come to symbolize the
nation's resolve to win the war against global terrorism.
Six months from today, Pentagon officials and construction
workers alike intend to have finished the most visible
reconstruction, renovation project manager Lee Evey told
the press in an update briefing March 7.
"We want to have people back in the building on E Ring,
where the aircraft impacted, by Sept. 11 of this year," he
said. "We want them to be sitting at their desks performing
their mission."
Everyone associated with the project, he said, wants to
bring the building back as quickly as possible. "That's our
goal, and that's our mission. We want to do it as
efficiently, effectively, and we also want to do it in as
cost-effective a manner as we possibly can."
A large digital clock at the site stands witness to that
resolve. Illuminated red numbers display the hours and
minutes remaining until the first anniversary of the
attack. The clock bears the words, "Let's Roll," honoring
the heroes who died in the skies over Pennsylvania to
prevent further attacks on Washington.
"We're counting down the days," Evey said. "This gets to
zero at 9:38 a.m. on Sept. 11 of this year -- just to
remind everybody of our commitment and what we intend to do
by that date.
As many as 1,000 workers a day have put heart and soul into
rebuilding the nation's historic military headquarters. At
first they worked three shifts, 24 hours a day, seven days
a week.
"At Christmas, we insisted that all the workers take two
days off," Evey said. "A group of 64 workers came and
complained to us because they wanted to work straight
through. We insisted they take two days off. We also
insisted that they had to take two days off at New Year's."
As work progressed, managers cut the daily work force to
about 600 workers, who now put in two 10-hour shifts a day,
six days a week. "We didn't want to continue to push these
guys seven days a week, 24 hours a day, because we're
concerned that we could start to have accidents on the
job," he said.
"Our accident rate on our project is extraordinary," he
noted. "We've spent well over 860,000 man-hours on the job.
We've had one lost-time accident, which was a minor thumb
injury that one of the workers experienced. That's an
extraordinary safety record."
Both managers and workers are highly motivated, Evey said.
Managers start arriving at 3 a.m. so that the work is laid
out and everything's ready for the workers to move forward
by the time they arrive about 5:30.
The first step in the undertaking was dubbed Project
Phoenix. It involved demolishing about 400,000 square feet
of the building. From the first day, Evey said, the work
has consistently been weeks ahead of schedule, he noted.
"We very quickly removed about 10,000 tons of debris," he
said. Workers then shored up the structure, making it safe
to "go back into those areas, remove things like classified
materials, personal effects and things like that," he said.
After testing the condition of the building's concrete,
construction engineers determined they would have to take
down more of the building than they'd originally thought.
Evey said normal concrete is brown or gray, but inspected
parts had turned red, indicating extensive damage.
"Most of that damage," he said, "was caused by the intense
heat to which it was exposed -- heat intense enough in some
areas to melt the window glass, which ran down the walls
and puddled on the floor."
Original estimates indicated that demolishing the damaged
area would take up to eight months. "We managed to bring
the building down in one month and one day, which is an
extraordinary rate of building demolition," Evey remarked.
Pentagon officials are striving to improve "force
protection" should the building be subjected to similar
threats in the future.
"We have interviewed everyone that we could find in the
building who was in close proximity to the crash at the
time that it occurred," Evey said. "We're learning as much
from them as we possibly can with regard to the performance
of the building and how we can improve it."
Some changes are tiny, but very important, he said.
"In a fire, for example, it is unlikely people are going to
be standing upright, looking for exit signs over doorways.
You're going to be on your hands and knees," he said, "You
probably won't be able to see your hand in front of your
face. If you're underneath that exit sign, just eight or 10
feet away from it, it might as well be a hundred miles
away, because you won't be able to see it."
To correct this, he said, workers are installing
nonelectrical, glow-in-the-dark devices that can be placed
at floor level so that a person on hands and knees can find
the way out. "That doesn't cost a whole lot. It's not very
sexy. It's not very exciting. But it's just very practical,
and it seems to work pretty darn well," Every said.
Pentagon officials are also looking at ways to improve the
sprinkler system, how to make the building more resistant
to different types of attack, and how best to evacuate the
building. Some new forms of protection had already been
installed as part of renovation work under way at the time
of the attack, he noted.
"Most people that were sitting in Wedge 1 on Sept. 11 had
no idea that there were blast-resistant windows in that
building," he said. "They had no idea that we had retrofit
six-inch-by-six-inch steel members. They had no idea that
we had put in Kevlar cloth to catch masonry fragments.
Those things were invisible to them, but they operated very
effectively."
 | Construction workers place concrete formwork
for a wall on the second floor of the C-Ring of the
Pentagon. Crews started that work on Feb. 12, 2002. After
six months since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on
the building, workers are putting in 60 hours a week to
finish work by the first anniversary. DoD photo by George
Jackson.
(Click photo for screen-resolution image; high-resolution image available.)
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 | Construction workers erect a network of
steel reinforcing rods inside a formwork in which concrete
will be poured to create an inside wall of the D-ring of
the Pentagon. Crews started that work on Feb. 12, 2002.
After six months since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack
on the building, workers are putting in 60 hours a week to
finish work by the first anniversary. DoD photo by George
Jackson.
(Click photo for screen-resolution image; high-resolution image available.)
|
 | Pentagon construction workers place sections
of plastic formwork liner in which concrete will be poured
to create a section of wall at the Pentagon Crews started
that work on Feb. 12, 2002. After six months since the
Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the building, workers
are putting in 60 hours a week to finish work by the first
anniversary. DoD photo by George Jackson.
(Click photo for screen-resolution image; high-resolution image available.)
|
 | Reconstruction of the Pentagon continues as
work crews pour concrete for floors and walls to replace
those damaged in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on
the building. Crews started that pouring job on Feb. 12,
2002. After six months since the attack, workers are
putting in 60 hours a week to finish work by the first
anniversary. DoD photo by Grant Greenwalt.
(Click photo for screen-resolution image; high-resolution image available.)
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