Evening star., 1944-02-29
Pentogon
CONTINUED From First Page

mandate of the committee and the
House" said Mr.. Engel.
Next, Mr.. Engel said he was in
cluding photostatic copy of field
progress report made by the dis
trict engineer to the chief of en-
gineers, dated June l5,~i942,. giving
the project cost as $5s,D06, ,31g. How
ever, an engineering progress re-
port two and half months later
brought the project cost down to
$49, 1874, ,442, he said, by eliminating
items totaling nearly $4,000, 900 for
teracing, landscaping, parking lots,
access roads, grading ana excava-
tion included in the June Is report.
Then there was a field progress
report of April "a, 1943, which put
the entire project cost" at $685.
454 ,583, Mr.. Engel continued.
Last December %, the War De-
partment gave him, he said, what
purported to be a complete and final
report. The foreword, he said. gave
the cost of construction of the
building and its outside utilities" as
of last December l, at s62,045, ,s54.
but figures to be found inside raised
the available funds to $75,889, 1856,
all of which was reported spent ex-
cept $667 ,780, to make the cost total
SIS, ,222, 900.
Road Costs Added.
Mr.. Engel said this sum did not
include the $10,64O,0O0 taken from
the access roads funds of the Public
Roads Administration for develop
ments in the Pentagon area, which
he uses to make the total estimate
$85, ,861 .576.
Congress, said Mr. Engel, would
not have appropriated $86 900 900
for the Pentagon project; would
not have authorized a building with
heating, ventilating and power
plant costing $13,251 ,2O3, or the ex-
penditure of $16,966 600 for roads,
bridges and rights of way in the
Pentagon area, or have authorized
the Secretary of War to take nearly
SAL ,OOo, 900 of emergency funds to
Uuuu CIlc TcIltdSOn.
Breakdown Called Difficult.
Mr.. Engel agreed it was difficult
to determine the exact cost per
square foot of the Pentagon since
to take the $40 900 900 building cost
as guide would be to omit costs
OF utilities, roads, bridges and park
ways which should be charged
against the project. Also, he added,
to take the $86,o00, 600 figure would
be to charge against the Pentagon
a portion of the total cost which
should be applied to other buildings
serviced by its roads and utilities.
Unable to unravel these compli-
cations, he presented the low and
high results as $7.97 and 1880 per
square foot of gross Office space.
Against this he offered reports of
costs of other Government build
ings ranging from $3.50 to $1O.97 per
square foot.
He promised to provide later de-
tailed reports on the costs of land
making up the Pentagon area and
on the operating costs.
Undersecretary of War Patterson,
replying by letter to queries made
by Mr.. Engel, declared the acts of
Congress themselves provided
authority for the War Department
to use the lump sums appropriated
for expediting production and for
engineer service in the development
of the Pentagon project. He cited
appropriation acts to show that pro-
visions for erection of structures,
or for acquisition Of land" were in
cluded In the acts.
The, Undersecretary added: "The
War Department has never had any
question as to the propriety of
employing these funds in the con-
struction of the Pentagon. You, and
the other members of the subcom-
mittee who were present, will recall
that In his testimony before the
House Appropriations subcommittee
on June Is, 1942, Gen. Il. r. Groves
stated that expediting production
funds would be used for completion
|of the building and that no further
action by the Congress was con-
|sidered necessary"