And that is the biggest challenge for the 100 people in the renovation office and their contractors. Unlike in many renovation projects, contractors can't just go in and rip out old wiring, communications lines and plumbing to replace them. Everyone but the workers in the space actually being worked on must stay connected. In addition, no record exists of the patchwork of additions and upgrades made to the Pentagon over the past 57 years. Of course, mistakes do happen, and when they do, affected workers can call a hot line to report outages.
Calls come in spurts, usually when new construction starts, and only about a half-dozen at a time.
There's another hot line for reporting noise, dust and other construction-related problems. Glenn Flood, who works in the office of the assistant secretary of Defense for public affairs, says his office had problems with noise when construction first started. Staffers sometimes had to ask the construction office to lay off pile driving during an important meeting or a press briefing. But, like others interviewed, Flood says the construction office was responsive to the requests. Most Pentagon workers take in stride the disruption and inconvenience that construction brings they see it as inevitable.