Last Sept. 11, Jean Barnak, a senior manager in the Pentagon's renovation program, could not keep herself from walking a bit slower than usual from the parking lot to a 9:30 a.m. meeting in the military headquarters building. She was running late, but chatting with a co-worker and enjoying a few extra minutes of late summer sunshine was more appealing than hashing out the details of relocating thousands of Defense Department employees during the building's ongoing decade-long renovation.
It turned out be the last break Barnak would have from her job for many months.
"By the time I got to the room where the meeting was, everybody was running out of the building," said Barnak. The veteran federal employee cannot recall hearing American Airlines Flight 77 slam into the building, and at first assumed from what co-workers told her that there had been an accident on the construction site. But once outside the building, a column of black smoke rising above the rings told her something much worse had occurred. "I knew it was no small construction explosion," she said.
Since Sept. 11, Barnak, who has served as the deputy program manager for rebuilding the damaged Pentagon, and dozens of other construction managers and thousands of construction workers, have faced no small task in rebuilding the symbol of America's military might. About 2 million square feet of office space over five floors was damaged in the attack, displacing 4,600 workers and leaving behind 50,000 tons of debris. Construction and demolition experts talked about the years-not the months or weeks-it would take to rebuild.
But those experts underestimated two key factors: a slew of contract reforms already in place for the renovation program and the resolve of workers to get the building back up and running. The reforms allowed contracts to be awarded within days of the attacks. Meanwhile, demolition and construction crews logged 3 million person-hours by working around the clock seven days a week until Christmas and then pulling 10-hour shifts, six days a week, for the next six months.
Managemers also put in long hours. "We have our first meeting at 5:30 every morning, another at 6:30 and another at 7:00," Barnak said. "By the time most people are waking up, we have had a half day's worth of meetings."
The work has paid off. Employees are already moving back into offices that were destroyed less than 12 months ago. By Sept. 11, the Pentagon expects 3,000 of the 4,600 displaced workers to be back in the building, including those with offices on the outermost ring, which sustained the brunt of the attack.
"Offices in the impact area are already occupied," says Barnak. And the costs of renovating the building-once pegged at $740 million-are now expected to come in substantially lower at $501 million. Walking through the Pentagon in late August, the signs of rebirth were visible everywhere. Plastic covered newly delivered furniture, bright red carpet without a single stain covered a floor, and a construction worker was testing the locks he'd just installed on a door. The only obvious signs of last year's attack were a chapel for private meditation about 20 yards from the site of impact and a smaller adjoining room that will have a black granite wall listing the names of all those killed in the building. Both rooms will be open only to Pentagon personnel.
Other reminders were not so obvious. Glow-in-the-dark signs pointing the way to exits now line the bases of doorways, hallways and door handles. That simple innovation came from interviews with hundreds of employees who struggled to find a way out in the dark. Some changes cannot be seen, including more powerful sprinkler systems and improved firewalls.
Two Pentagon ceremonies are planned for Sept. 11. In the morning, President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will lead a memorial service that will include a moment of silence and an unfurling of the American flag that flew on the building after the attacks. In the afternoon, there will be a recognition ceremony for the thousands of construction workers, who will be allowed to bring their families onto the site.
A more somber ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on Sept. 12 will honor all the Pentagon's victims followed by interment of the remains of five unidentified men and women.
But Barnak is not sure how she'll feel after the one-year anniversary passes. "We'll see whether things get back to normal on Sept. 12," she said.