Pentagon Renovation Progress Following the September 11 Attack

Real Audio of Briefing

       MODERATOR: Good morning, and welcome to the Washington Foreign Press Center. As we all are aware, over the past year there has been a remarkable -- remarkable progress in the renovation of the Pentagon since the attack one year ago. And so we're very pleased to have with us today Mr. Lee Evey, who is the program manager for that entire project. Mr. Evey has a presentation he'll give you, and then we'll take Q's and A's. Sir.

       MR. EVEY: Thank you very much, Rick. Appreciate it.

       Good morning. It's a pleasure to be here today and have an opportunity to provide you an update on what's happening on our program. George.

       On September 11th, 2001, of course, an aircraft crashed into the west face of the Pentagon. This diagram shows the approximate route of that aircraft into the building. It entered the building on the first floor, on the west side, what we call the heliport side of the building, but the edge of the first wedge, it's the first one million square feet of the building that we were accomplishing renovation in. We were approximately five days away from total renovation of that first one million square feet in the building. We were in the process of moving people out of the second wedge, that second one million square feet of the building, into that wedge one in anticipation of them doing renovation in wedge two.

       The aircraft hit at the edge of wedge one and passed at approximately a 45-degree angle through the building on the first floor level, passing through the edge of wedge one and into the unrenovated wedge two area. It damaged sufficiently that it required complete demolition and then renovation of approximately 400,000 square feet of the building, and a grand total of about two million square feet within the building were affected to one degree or another.

       This is the scene that many of you will remember from September 11th. It shows the west face of the building, and a collapsed portion of the building, smaller than the area of the building that ultimately had to be demolished and then rebuilt. I think what is particularly interesting about this photo is that it shows several characteristics of the building that were changed as a result of the Pentagon renovation and which as a result of those changes resulted in a much smaller loss of life and injury than might have otherwise been the case. As part of our renovation activities, we did a number of things within the building to improve the building's resistance to attack. Among other things, we included blast- resistant windows. We included a steel framework in the building which helps prevent collapse and damage, as well, as use of a ballistic type of cloth, a Kevlar type of material similar to the materials that are used to produce bullet- proof vests. All of those materials working together helps reduce damage to the building and to its occupants. And in fact the building stood for approximately 35 minutes after impact by the aircraft before collapse occurred. As a result, that 35 minutes, critical minutes, allowed people within the building an opportunity to escape. Had we not had that additional 35 minutes, the total of injury might have been much higher than it was.

       As a result of the impact of the aircraft on September 11th, it provided us a practical demonstration, if you will, of what it means in a building of the age and type of construction of the Pentagon to accomplish a renovation. Because the aircraft hit in wedge one, which we had renovated, and then passed through wedge two, which we had not renovated, we could do a comparison of how the building reacts to those types of stresses.

       In addition to the changes that we had made to the exterior of the building, we've made a number of changes to the interior of the building that also improved building performance after the crash. For instance, we had installed a full sprinkler system in wedge one that was activated after the crash and helped fight the fire. We also added things like smoke doors and other devices that helped protect the occupants and helped provide additional protection after the crash event. In wedge two, it didn't have nearly the same number of safety devices, and as a result of that, the fire was much more dramatic and much more widespread in wedge two than it was in wedge one.

       For example, in wedge one, except where the fire was supported directly by fuel carried into the building by the aircraft, as that fire attempted to spread into other areas in wedge one, the sprinkler system knocked down the fire immediately and there was essentially no fire spread at all within wedge one. Now, we did suffer smoke damage and water damage in wedge one that was fairly extensive, but we did not have fire damage. In wedge two, it took us two-and-a-half days to get the fire put out because we did not have the same level of safety equipment in wedge two. So, it was a practical demonstration of what it means to people within a building to be in a newly renovated and improved building area.

       The job that the building did in protecting its occupants was superlative. We know where people were in the building because we were in the process of moving occupants in the building from wedge two into wedge one. We were trying to empty wedge two so that we would be able to continue the renovation in that next to-be-renovated portion of the building. Because we were in the midst of that move, we were aware of the fact that on the morning of September 11th, there were approximately 2,600 people in the immediate area of the aircraft impact. We took 125 casualties within the building on the morning of September 11th, and in addition, we suffered about 100 injuries. And of course it's unfortunate that that occurred. But nevertheless, it's clear that the building did a wonderful job of protecting its occupants. It was hit by a 757, traveling at approximately 350 miles an hour and carrying somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 gallons of jet fuel. Now, the fact that the casualties were so low in an environment like that I think provides ample evidence of the effectiveness of the renovated changes we've made to the building.

       We had estimated shortly after September 11th that it would take us somewhere between six and eight months to accomplish the full demolition of the area that required demolition and rebuild. That area again is about 400,000 square feet. And instead of taking six to eight months, it took us a little over one month -- in fact, one month and one day -- to accomplish the full demolition of that area. The photograph that we have on the screen right now was taken about a month and a week after we began the demolition effort. And although it may be difficult to see in that photo, the nature of the rebuilding activity that was underway was already significant at that point in time. It already had rebar, structural steel, being placed into the existing floor slab, and in some places rebar, which would form the core of the resultant rebuilt column structure for the building, already in place and going up very quickly. George.

       Just a few days ago, this is what the building looked like on the exterior. The reconstructed exterior of the building has been essentially in place since around June 11th. We're still doing -- or were still doing up until a few days ago some cosmetic changes to the exterior of the building, but that construction now is essentially totally complete.

       And in fact, as the photo shows, we already have shrubbery in place, grass planted, et cetera. So, the exterior recovery of the building is essentially done and has been done for some period of time now.

       Here's another photo of that area showing the extent of the recovery, which is again totally complete. It's a great match. If you've had the opportunity to ride by the building, you can go by the west side of the building on Route 27, I can almost defy you to determine where the building has been rebuilt and where it previously existed. The limestone on the exterior of the building was taken from the same vein of limestone that the original limestone came from for the construction of the building that occurred on 1941. It is extremely difficult at this point in time to even see that there was ever any damage at all to the building. The building is fully recovered and we are back up in operation.

       Now this gives you a hint of what the improvements have been on the inside of the building since September 11th. On the left side, we have a picture of one of the offices that was badly damaged on the September 11th morning. We show there fire damage, smoke damage and water damage, which was extensive on those areas of the building closest to the aircraft crash site. To the right, we show a photo of an area that's close, in close proximity to the picture shown on the left, and essentially those areas are completely and totally recovered. We have new furniture in place. All the building systems are up and operational, and we are at this point in time rapidly moving people back into the building, and we've been doing that for some time.

       Now here's another example of the type of damage that existed on September 11th. This particular office was badly damaged. It's adjacent to the area of the building that collapsed, and in fact the sunlight you see streaming in from the left side of this photo is where the wall has fallen away from the building. And if you could have a clearer sight of it, you'd be looking out into the collapsed portion of the building on September 11th. That building area has now been completely recovered, and this is another picture of the same office taken just a few days ago.

       It's worth noting that this office is one of the most famous offices in America for a brief period of time. If you remember that evening of September 11th, late in the evening when some of the Marines climbed to the top of the building and planted that American flag at the top of the Pentagon. That flag was taken from this office. And you see in the rear of the office the American flag and a Marine Corps flag are back in place, the same location they were in the morning of September 11th. And that office is now up, operational. People have been in there since August 15th when we moved them in. They were the first group that we moved back into the building. They're back in and performing their mission better than ever. George.

       Here's some photos of that first move-in, the initial move-in. That was a Marine Corps unit. It was a JAG office, it's a legal office, as well as a portion of the Marine Corps that supports aviation activities. These are some photos of those people moving in on that morning of August 15th. And they occupied a significant area of the building on the fourth floor.

       As a result of the learning that we accomplished as a result of the September 11th activities, and we accomplished this learning in two ways -- one is through what we call a building forensics analysis where we worked closely with the United States Army Corps of Engineers doing computer analyses and a structural building review to determine how the building reacted to the stresses it was exposed to on September 11th, and as a result of discussions that we've had, interviews with people who were in the immediate area of the building on September 11th and in the immediate area of the aircraft crash site in the building, we've learned a number of things to improve the building, and we've already begun to employ those improvements and those changes in the building construction.

       We have several pictures that give you an idea of the types of changes that we're making. On the upper left hand corner, for instance, we show some improved construction techniques where previously we were using interior walls constructed of gypsum board, which is a rather light construction material. Instead, in those areas, for instance, passageways, corridors in the building, utility areas and other critical areas in the building, we are rebuilding them with the use of concrete block units filled with steel and concrete to make them considerably tougher and more resistant to damage than they were on September 11th.

       On the upper right hand corner, we have a photo of some additional work we're doing to improve the sprinkler system and the fire-fighting capability in the building. When the aircraft entered the building on September 11th, it severed what we call stand pipes that provide water supply to some of the sprinkler systems. So, in the immediate area where the aircraft impacted the building, the sprinkler system did not operate as effectively as we would have liked. So, we've taken some steps to improve its performance. So, we've increased the number of stand pipes that feed the sprinkler areas. So, if we should ever experience a similar type of attack in the future, and should a stand pipe be severed, there will be other alternative stand pipes that can still provide water to the sprinkler systems and allow them to operate to some degree of capacity.

       Another thing that we learned, which are shown by the two photographs in the bottom, is that when you are in a catastrophic fire environment, the things that you might normally expect to operate in certain ways in buildings don't necessarily operate that way, and you have to take that into account and accommodate those challenges in your building construction. In simple English, what I mean is that, for example, if you look at that EXIT sign, it's brightly lit, it does a good job of showing you where an exit is -- as long as you are in a nice, non-fire filled, non-smoke filled environment.

       What we learned as a result of September 11th, however, is when you're in a smoke-filled environment, you're not going to be standing in clear room. You're going to first drop to your knees, you're going to be on the floor. Secondly, you're going to move toward a wall to orient yourself. And then having decided where you are in the building, you try to find your way out. And nice, brightly lit exit signs that may only be eight feet up on a wall or a ceiling might as well be a hundred miles away, because if you are in a thick smoke and you can't see your hand in front of your face, you're not going to be able to see that exit sign.

       So, we're undertaken what we call photo-luminescent signage placement. Photo-luminescent signage is a signage that glows very, very brightly in the dark. It does not require electrical supply to make it glow in the dark. It's very, very visible. We're using a special chemical device that provides a very bright illumination, so that in the future, should we ever be faced with a catastrophic fire event, if people are on their hands and knees, on the floor and trying to find their way out of the building, there will be clearly marked -- you know, clearly locate exits in the building, and clearly demonstrate through the use of arrows and other devices how you can best and most effectively, most easily exit the building.

       Over the past year, we've taken a process that previously required three years and we've reduced that to only one year, and we've done that through a number of things. We've coordinated very, very effectively, we believe, with people who live inside the building, work inside the building, maintain the building, secure the building, to make sure that the work that we do is done as effectively as we possibly can, that meet the needs of the people in the building to perform their mission as well as possible, keep the building and construct it in a way such that maintenance can be accomplished as easily as possible, and the building is even more secure than it was in the past.

       To say that we have had a highly motivated workforce is an understatement. Our workforce for many, many months worked 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They refused to take holidays. They refused to take days off on the weekend. And when those of us who are managers and leaders of the project attempted to get them to take days off, time off, or weekends off, we were met with threats of physical, bodily violence. (Laughter.) These were strongly, highly motivated individuals.

       We've used contracts with our contractors who are doing the work to incentivize them to perform well. We've had incentives in our contracts for rapid performance, reflected in cost savings. We've also ensured that through our contract structure that when contractors demonstrate the types of behavior that we want -- high motivation, a quality work effort, cooperation, good communication, outstanding problem solving -- that they are rewarded for that behavior through increased profits. And the result has been an extraordinary work effort of the very highest quality. We try to ensure that our goals are clear and that we as managers and especially as leaders have tried to ensure that in working with the workforce that we made every attempt possible and we did the best possible job that we could do to ensure that what our goals were were clear, our schedules were clear, how the work was to be accomplished was clear, and that we did everything we could to solve as many of their problems as we possibly could.

       Our job as leaders and managers are to ensure that every single individual out there on the work -- job site, can accomplish their job as quickly, as easily, and as effectively as possible. That's our purpose in life, and we set about doing that as well as we possibly could.

       And then finally, there's that intangible asset of team work, and the team work was extraordinary. People pitched in every day, every possible way, to help one another in a remarkable way. And it's been truly an inspiring example of people working together to achieve a common goal.

       The cost has been a pleasant surprise to us. We had originally estimated that it would cost us approximately $740 million to do just the construction part of the recovery activity. By working together very, very effectively, and by making, I believe, every minute count in the reconstruction activity, right now we're estimating the total cost to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $501 million, and to date we've actually spent about $420 million.

       In many ways, if you look at the workforce that we have on our job, it's truly a reflection of America and the United States. There are 30 countries or more represented in our workforce. We have an extraordinary workforce supporting our activities, and indeed, were it not for representation within our workforce of the many immigrants to our country and the many personnel who have come to our country from overseas locations, we could never have achieved what we have done since September 11th, 2001. And many of the people who have served on this workforce and who have worked so hard to recover our building have dramatic personal stories of their travel to the United States and their arrival in America. So, to these people, the Pentagon is not merely a job, it's not merely a place where you come to work. It is a visible symbol for good in the world, and they intend to support that building and this country with every ounce of their fiber. George.

       While we've been doing the improvements and the changes to our building as a result of the September 11th incident, I want to emphasize that we've been accomplishing a tremendous number of other previously scheduled activities that have continued without any change in our schedule, without any change with regard to our level of achievement that were originally planned long before September 11th occurred.

       For example, we had planned the opening of the Metro entrance facility, the new bus facility outside the Pentagon. We had planned the initial opening of that facility on December 16th. It was extremely difficult to keep that project on schedule, and it was a real challenge to make sure that that facility would be able to open on December 16th.

       But the facility opened on December 16th, as scheduled, on time, and was not impacted in any negative way other than just being a little bit more difficult a challenge by the events of September 11th. But that facility will be completely opened and completely usable by the building on the end of November, and that's the same date that we originally scheduled. That project has not been slowed at all.

       We are continuing, in a slightly modified format, slightly different way than we had intended it, but we are continuing with the previously scheduled renovation of wedges two through five, the other approximately four-and-a-half million square feet of the building yet to be renovated.

       I would emphasize that on September 11th of 2001, it was our intent to have that renovation project completed by the year 2014. We now intend to have that project completed in the year 2010. So we will have accelerated our renovation of the complete building by four years.

       And I believe, to a very great extent, that acceleration, that upgrade in the capability and the capacity of the Pentagon, the ability of that building to support the people within that building, to support the troops overseas and American forces wherever they may be employed throughout the world, they'll be able to support them more effectively and more efficiently than previously. And we have accelerated by a total of four years.

       In addition, we're doing work down in the basement and mezzanine areas of the building. That work is either on schedule or accelerated and underway more quickly than we had anticipated being able to accomplish the work. So we're very pleased at the rate of improvement in terms of construction and renovation activity in those areas of the building.

       Finally, one last project is a physical fitness and readiness facility, also which has not been impacted and is still on track, exactly on schedule, and will open as we had previously scheduled.

       We have other projects as well, but I'm not going to bore you with all of them. Suffice it to say that the Pentagon renovation has a large number of projects underway. All of them that were underway on September 10th are still underway now, plus a few more that have been added since then. Every single one of them is on track, on schedule or ahead of schedule. Every single one of them is being brought in on budget or even under budget.

       Oh, one more -- (intake/outflow ?) project. I'd forgotten that one. That's a cooling water project. We're bringing in water from the Potomac River to help provide additional cooling for the building. It involves some very sensitive tunneling activities around the Metro tunnel, et cetera, a very challenging project and one that we're having a lot of fun with and which is on schedule and doing quite well cost-wise.

       So that's a very brief update with regard to what activities are underway at the Pentagon, what we've accomplished since September 11th of 2001, and where we're going in the future.

       At this point in time, Rick, I think we'd like to turn it over for questions.

       MODERATOR: We'll take questions now. Please remember to wait for the microphone. And when you ask your questions, please indicate your name and news organization. Thank you. Over here first.

       Q I'm Marian Bessey (sp) with Radio Free Asia. I was wondering, do you have a projected dollar amount for the entire Pentagon renovation for 2002?

       MR. EVEY: The entire Pentagon project -- that includes everything; that includes the cost of moving people around, moving people out into what we call swing space, to provide temporary housing for them as some of the renovation activities are underway, all new information management, telecommunications, new furniture, the force protection changes that we're making in the building to further toughen and improve the building, the reconstruction of the building, everything, all renovation included and some special projects that go along with it -- the total cost is going to be in the neighborhood of about $4 billion.

       MODERATOR: In the back.

       Q Lee Pfaltz (sp) from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. You spoke about how the workers insisted on working through weekends and things like that. Did you ever have any morale problems, given the huge scale of the project and also its tragic nature? Or was it always the way you've described it?

       MR. EVEY: Well, of course, people -- we had a total of about 3,000 workers on the job site at one time or another. The most that we ever had physically on the job site at one time was in the nature of about 1,500 people. And, of course, with a total of 3,000 people, you have 3,000 different and very personal responses to a tragedy like September 11th.

       So I would respond to you in a general way, however. We were so busy trying to figure out how we were going to do our work, keep everything on track, provide good value for the American taxpayer, use their money wisely and make all of this stuff happen and come together the proper way, we didn't really have that much time for reflection. We were incredibly busy. Actually, it's only been quite recently that we've had enough time to reflect at all.

       The general mood among this workforce was this was something that happened in our backyard; we're going to fix it.

       MODERATOR: (Off mike.)

       Q (Inaudible) -- from Brazil. I actually have two questions. One is -- and I go one at a time, if I'm allowed. The first one is, were you there? And what was your exact first thought, if you were there?

       MR. EVEY: I was not physically there that morning. My brother- in-law had died the day before, and I was traveling by auto to his funeral. I had traveled out about six hours. I was in Tennessee, and so I had to turn around and drive six hours back, so I did not arrive at the site until about 6:00 that afternoon.

       I will say my initial impression, driving up to the Pentagon and looking at the extent of damage, was that no radio broadcast that describes to you in words and no television broadcast that shows you in pictures, no magazine cover nor no picture on the front of a newspaper can really capture an event of that catastrophic nature. The emotional impact of seeing that, of course, is quite dramatic. That lasted for about two minutes, and then it was figuring out how we make it right again. Again, there was no time to really contemplate what was happening. Our job was to fix it back. And we set about to do that immediately.

       Q The second question is, I mean, the Pentagon is not just a building in the United States. It's a symbol of security not only for this country but for the world, and it really shook the world what happened. And how can you guarantee the world that this will not happen again without restricting the rights of immigrants, like the workers you showed there?

       MR. EVEY: Well, actually, my response to that has to be that I'm a guy who builds buildings; I'm not a guy who determines foreign policy. So I really can't respond to that question. I can talk to you a lot about building buildings, okay. Those other questions are much more cosmic than what I deal with.

       Q But how can you guarantee that won't happen again?

       MR. EVEY: I can't guarantee anything.

       Q Thank you.

       MR. EVEY: Yes, ma'am. Thank you.

       MODERATOR: Anybody else? Last chance. Okay. Well, Mr. Evey, thank you very much for coming here. We very much appreciate it.

       MR. EVEY: Thank you, Rick. Thank you very much. It was a pleasure to be with you today, and I appreciate very much your sharing an interest in our program. Thank you.