Although a few aspects of the project are controversial, no one will argue that the effort is unnecessary. In addition to the plagues mentioned above, the Pentagon has about 30 localized electrical outages every day. In some places, the basement slab had settled as much as 12 inches. Because it was built during World War II, when steel was hoarded for battleships, the Pentagon has no passenger elevators. Hazardous materials can be found throughout the building.
Asbestos is in the ceilings, heating and ventilating ducts, pipes and floor coverings.
There's also a wealth of lead and mercury. When the systems fail, the results are not pretty. Seven million gallons of water flooded approximately 350,000 square feet of the Pentagon's basement, jeopardizing activities in the Army and Air Force operations centers. Perhaps the biggest concern driving the project is security. Since the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995, federal workers everywhere have felt more vulnerable, and nowhere more so than at the Pentagon.