The Phoenix Project

THE

“Let’s roll.” The slogan adopted for the Phoenix Project – the reconstruction of a massive section of the Pentagon destroyed on 9/11 – and displayed prominently during reconstruction were the last words spoken on his cellphone by United Airlines Flight 93 passenger Todd Beamer as he and fellow passengers and crewmembers mounted an assault on their hijackers, eventually forcing the plane to crash into an open field in rural Pennsylvania rather than its presumed target: the White House.

By J.R. Wilson

At 9:37 a.m. EDT on Sept. 11, 2001, a hijacked Boeing 757-223 jetliner – American Airlines Flight 77 – was deliberately crashed into the western side of the Pentagon at 530 mph. As it penetrated 310 feet into the three outermost of the building’s five rings, 10,000 gallons of jet fuel ignited, unleashing a 200-foot-high fireball and destroying a segment of the military complex that was just finishing its first renovation since the Pentagon was constructed during World War II.

Inside the building, 125 men, women, and children died, along with 64 crew and passengers aboard the aircraft, including the five hijackers. Another 106 were injured on the ground.

Flight 77 was hijacked less than 35 minutes after departing Washington Dulles International Airport for Los Angeles with only one-third of its seats occupied.

The attack came just moments after two other hijacked airliners – American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 – crashed into the World Trade Center buildings in New York City, killing 157, including 10 terrorists, aboard the aircraft, 2,996 in the skyscrapers and on the ground, and injuring more than 6,000. A third hijacked aircraft – United Airlines Flight 93, believed heading for the White House – was forced by passengers to crash into a field in rural Pennsylvania, killing all 44 crew and passengers, including four al Qaeda terrorists.

The day before the terrorist attack, about 3,800 people had moved back into the newly renovated Wedge 1 – the first of five 1,000,000-gross-square-foot Pentagon “wedges” scheduled for extensive renovation under a plan begun in 1994. Had the attack come a week later, hundreds more would have been in their new offices.

Fire, water, smoke, and mold damaged 1.6 million square feet of the building, with another 400,000 square feet – about half in Wedge 1, the other half in the adjoining Wedge 2 – suffering severe structural damage and requiring complete structural demolition and reconstruction.

Demolition and rebuilding – dubbed the Phoenix Project – were delayed until after a memorial ceremony, held at the Pentagon on Oct. 11, 2001. The demolition phase, begun on Oct. 18 and estimated to take two months – far faster than a normal rate of six months – was completed only one month later. Reconstruction began on Nov. 19 with the laying of concrete for the first new structural columns.

While the work just completed on Wedge 1 at the time of the attack had to be redone from scratch, the Phoenix Project – planned for completion by Sept. 11, 2002 – actually resulted in a significant speed-up in the overall 20-year renovation effort. The Phoenix Project was completed one month ahead of schedule and under budget and the complete $4.5 billion Pentagon renovation (Pen- Ren) on June 21, 2011, four years later than the original estimate, but three years sooner than the 1999 revised schedule.

Gen. Richard B. Myers, then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, thanked the Phoenix Project Team at a ceremony marking the anniversary of the attack: “You’ve restored this great building ahead of schedule, with muscle, determination, marble, cement and Indiana limestone. You did more than repair our windows and walls, you repaired our souls. In the process, you turned this building into another symbol, one of American resilience.”

That was one of two on-site ceremonies marking the completion of the Phoenix Project and the anniversary of the attack. On the morning of Sept. 11, 2002, more than 12,000 people attended the “United in Freedom” ceremony commemorating the lives lost at the Pentagon on 9/11/2001. That afternoon, a Worker Appreciation Ceremony was held to honor the efforts of those who worked tirelessly to rebuild the Pentagon.

The creation, approval, funding, and completion of the Phoenix Project matched the speed and effort of the original construction of the Pentagon, which, ironically, began on Sept. 11, 1941, and the world’s largest office building was completed, occupied, and fully functional only 17 months later.

According to a Department of Defense (DOD) paper presented at the Project Management Institute (PMI) Global Congress 2003-North America, “The moment American Airlines Flight 77 slammed into the Pentagon, the Phoenix Project was initiated. The project was authorized without reviewing a strategic plan, using project selection methods or producing a project charter.

“Overnight, the cost to renovate the Pentagon was estimated and submitted to Congress. By Sept. 15, 2001, the decision was made to occupy the point of impact within a year and Congress authorized $700 million in emergency funds … Before plans were finalized or even in draft form, the project was executing, albeit unplanned, activities.”

That opened the door to a number of risks, including confusion as to who was doing what, when, and where; incohesive integration of project plans and indecision or hasty or wrong decisions.

“The Phoenix Project mitigated these risks by maintaining frequent communication among the IPTs [integrated project teams]; reusing intellectual capital from similar projects; hiring subject matter experts; working long, laborious hours; simplifying the project to two objectives … and one constraint – make it look like it did Sept. 10, 2001,” the paper explained.

Unusual for such a massive undertaking, the original budget was reduced to $501 million as new contract negotiations took into account a revised estimate of the scope of the damage. At the same time, the project scope also was changed by the work breakdown structure, number of activities, and their durations.

The DOD paper detailed the scope and complexity of the effort facing Phoenix Project planners and workers, logging and tracking 646 issues in the first month alone. The issues included:

• Management of a schedule with 30,000 activities

• Demolition of 400,000 square feet of structure and removal of 56,000 tons of contaminated debris

• Fabrication and installation of a replacement limestone façade using 1941 drawings; 2.5 million pounds of limestone were fabricated and installed by June 11, 2002

• Three million man-hours were worked within an 11-month construction period, with only five single-day lost-work incidents

• 21,000 cubic yards of concrete were poured and 3,800 tons of reinforcing steel placed

• All of that was done while the post-9/11 war was organized and implemented in Southwest Asia. The missions of the various military agencies were changing daily, causing constant revisions to the program, system, furnishing and equipment requirements

• Heightened security restrictions were imposed for the hiring and site access of manpower

A number of project management innovations were implemented to address those challenges:

• Integrated project management through the use of integrated product teams allowed faster formation of the team, enhanced project team communications and tighter and more accurate integration of project plans

• Time management through the development of an “ultra fast track” schedule enabled earlier installation of the exterior limestone and for multiple crews to work concurrently in the construction life cycle

• Time management by issuing drawings while still under development to allow early material ordering and manpower planning

• Procurement management through the use of a design-build project life cycle instead of a design-bid-build life cycle. Single design-and-build contracts were awarded at a fixed price

• Procurement management through the use of a total systems performance responsibility contract. Contractors were responsible for meeting the objectives and functional requirements specified

• Procurement management through the implementation of a fixed price, award fee, incentive fee (FPAFIF) contract. Contractors were financially motivated to perform desired project management, including completing the project on cost and on schedule

To accomplish the objectives, according to the paper, the project team had to:

• Establish a preliminary schedule

• Scope the project

• Integrate the project with ongoing PenRen activities

• Gather cost/budget information

• Develop contractual agreements with subcontractors and establish procurement agreements with suppliers

• Perform a project risk analysis

• Establish quality control/quality assurance standards for all phases of the project lifecycle

• Develop an internal and external communications plan

• Put in place a human resources plan to foster teamwork between all personnel

• Deal with the emotional impact of the tragedy As noted in The Renovator Articles, the Pentagon Renovation Program’s bi-monthly newsletter: “More than 3,000 men and women put a year of their lives on hold to recover damaged office space twice the size of the U.S. Capitol Building. They hauled away more than 50,000 tons of debris. They demolished 400,000 square feet of office space and rebuilt it from the ground up. They replaced 4,000 pieces of the Pentagon’s historic limestone façade. They moved 4,600 personnel out of the Pentagon on Sept. 12, 2001, and by Sept. 11, 2002, had moved 3,000 people back in. They made the Pentagon whole again.”

Workers prepare limestone to be placed on the facade of the Pentagon. The limestone was acquired from the quarries in Indiana where limestone had been acquired for the original construction in the 1940s.

As the final pieces of limestone were set in place, a bronze box containing a condolence book, a presidential photo, and handmade sympathy cards written by children was sealed into the newly rebuilt facade. The capsule is not intended to be opened.

According to the DOD’s PMI paper reviewing the Phoenix Project, the following team leaders are representative of the management staff responsible for the Project’s success:

• Pentagon Renovation Program Manager Lee Evey

• Program Renovation Deputy Program Manager Mike Sullivan

• Project Managers Will Colston, Dave Gabel, and Jean Barnak

• Deputy Project Manager Mike Yopp

• Structural Lead Allyn Kilsheimer

• Operations Manager Jack Kelly

• Legal Advisor Andrew Blumenfeld

• Project Engineers Jeff Foltz, Butch Wiles and Bill Sullivan

• Design Coordinator Marc Gravalesse

• Contracting Officer Debbie Hoffman

• Lead Quality Assurance Manager Joe Cristofori

• Office Engineer Joe Constantine

• Scheduler Edwin Pickens

• Chief Estimator Rock Viner

• Administrative Staff, Misty Kelly

• Information Management & Telecommunications, Gary Gunther

• Defense Protective Service Representative Tolly Prather

• Safety, Flo Cleyman

• Information and Communications, Brett Eaton In the first weeks of the rebuild, some 1,000 people worked three shifts, 24 hours a day, seven days a week to clear away the rubble.

As the Phoenix Project progressed, the overall Pentagon renovation was expanded to address vulnerabilities exposed by the attack. For example, the new configuration allows building workers in the emergency operations center to close off water valves endangering computers, safeguarding them from conditions that nearly shut down the Pentagon after the attack.

The post-attack reconstruction validated the modern building standards under which the overall Pentagon renovation was being conducted. Many lives were saved in Wedge 1 due to the installation of blast-resistant windows, structural supports, and fire sprinklers. In addition, the amount of asbestos thrown into the air and subsequently covering much of the Pentagon was reduced by the 70,000 cubic yards of the toxic insulation hauled away during the first rebuild of Wedge 1.

From the new Integrated Emergency Operations Center, Pentagon workers can monitor sensors scanning the building and its surroundings for any signs of a chemical, biological, or radiation attack, while screens on the walls display a constant series of images from 500 security cameras covering parking lots, corridors, and entrances, plus one showing the status of every fire alarm in the building (the so-called “legacy Pentagon” had few fire extinguishers).

The Phoenix Project made possible a massive leap from World War II-era equipment and building standards to 21st century digital technology capabilities and modern conveniences, such as the installation of 177 miles of cable tray to carry wiring throughout the structure and 70 passenger elevators replacing – or at least supplementing – the original stairways and ramps.

Gloomy Depression-era institutional cafeterias were replaced with a two-story dining atrium of terrazzo, stainless steel, and glass, while the Center Court Café, with a menu including panini and quesadillas, has replaced the old center courtyard hot dog stand.

The man in charge of PenRen for the project’s entire 17 years, including during the Phoenix Project, had a simple description for their stripping the structure to its concrete pillars and rebuilding it from the concrete slab base to the third level ceiling even as it continued to operate as headquarters for the world’s largest military force, 24 hours a day, every day:

“We took the building apart and put it together again, with 20,000 people sitting in it … It’s like taking apart a black-andwhite TV and putting it back together again in color, without missing any of your favorite programs.”