The US military said on Saturday it would cost "hundreds of millions" of dollars to repair the damage after a hijacked jetliner struck its 48-year-old Pentagon headquarters.
That comes on top of a US$758 million modernization program, already under way, to upgrade and strengthen the world's largest office building, said Lee Evey, director of the ongoing renovation.
The Defense Department on Saturday awarded an initial US$145 million contact to Chantilly, Virginia-based Hensel Phelps Construction Co to rebuild the damaged portions of the Pentagon.
"With the award of this contract we can begin immediate repairs to the Pentagon and make the necessary improvements that will keep it operating for the next 50 years," Evey said.
Evey spoke as clean-up and search crews continued to work in a fire-blackened part of the Pentagon, shattered and burned when hijackers crashed the jet into the building as part of a coordinated attack on America.
Modernization of the first wedge of the five-sided building had recently been completed and the aircraft smashed into that section, causing heavy damage there.
But Evey said damage in the renovated area was not nearly as bad as to the older area. And he suggested that lives were saved by new steel girders and a sprinkler system.
"This was a terrible tragedy and people lost their lives. But I am here to tell you that had we not undertaken this effort in the building, this could have been much, much worse," he said.
"We undertook a significant amount of work to try to make the building much more blast resistant than it was prior to renovation."
The complete renovation project, begun in 1994, will not be completed until at least 2012. And it could take several years alone to complete repairs to the damaged area, Evey said.
The renovation will include new girders throughout the structure and 5cm-thick windows, in addition to modern communications and other systems.
Although the building eventually collapsed in the area where the airliner hit, the official said, the damage was mitigated because of steps by the US Army Corps of Engineers to make the Pentagon more resistant to explosion.
He spoke as searchers continued to probe the rubble for remains of 187 people who are unaccounted for, including 64 aboard the airliner. More than 80 bodies have been recovered, but virtually all will require identification by forensic experts.
The Pentagon on Saturday said it had identified the remains of Aerographer's Mate First Class Edward Thomas Earhart, 26, of Salt Lick, Kentucky. He was previously listed as missing.
It also reduced its estimate of the number missing by one, after learning that a civilian employee had been a passenger aboard United Airlines Flight 175, which crashed into the World Trade Center.
Hensel Phelps and other firms on the renovation team would remove debris, demolish Pentagon sections down to the columns and floor slabs, and then rebuild space equivalent to more than two Empire State Buildings, Evey said.
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