Rebuilding a Massive and Moldy Effort

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http://www.usatoday.com/news/attack/2001/11/23/pentagon-usat.htm

11/23/2001 - Updated 08:59 AM ET

Pentagon waging a massive effort

By Lynne Perri, USA TODAY

What began as a job for some has become a patriotic duty for others. Philip

Sykora from Cleveland, one of those spraying water to keep down the massive

amounts of dust, sees his time at the Pentagon renovation site that way, as

more than another job.

" My wife didn't want me to go, " he says. " But no way I wouldn't go. This is

my way of trying to help. "

The Pentagon's massive concrete structure was sliced by a hijacked jet Sept.

11. That attack, which came on the same day as incidents at the World Trade

Center and in Pennsylvania, destroyed parts of the original structure and a

section of a recently renovated area. Now, round-the-clock crews work to

rebuild the home of the nation's military headquarters in Arlington, Va.

The cost of the crash site restoration is expected to be upward of $700

million, and the project is on a sped-up timetable.

Demolition was completed on Monday, and the first concrete for the

reconstruction was poured then as well. A tower crane was erected Nov. 17,

and a second will be built in mid-December. Both will hoist forms, steel and

buckets of concrete. On Sept. 11, 2002, Pentagon staffers are expected to be

working in the E-ring offices at the point where the jet hit the building.

At an expected rededication ceremony, a memorial or plans for a memorial to

the 189 victims will be unveiled. In the spring of 2003, the remaining

portions damaged by the attack will be complete.

To meet these deadlines, crews are working 24 hours a day, six days a week

with a slight slowdown on Sunday to catch up with debris removal. Some of

the 350 dayside and 100 nightside workers are inside the building, scrubbing

walls damaged by water and now covered in mold and removing asbestos, lead

and PCBs. They are performing the quiet work. They wear their protective

suits and breathe through respirators, silently exchanging information.

Those working outside hear the constant stream of trucks, the thunder of

concrete falling. Since Oct. 18, crews have removed 47,000 tons of mixed

debris - more than 1,000 dump-truck loads - and taken it to area landfills.

The work includes areas of the original structure, built in 1941, as well as

a section that had been renovated before the attacks in September - offices

that have to be rebuilt yet once again.

Tourists and locals continue to stream by the building. They pause to look

at what has evolved from a fire-blackened reminder of terrorism to a giant

gap awaiting new life. There are makeshift memorials, picture-takers and

those who stand quietly to take it all in. They carry and wave the American

flag, much as Sykora does nightly when he clips his flag to his hard hat.