NEW YORK (AP) – Forensic anthropologists digging around the World Trade Center site for overlooked victims’ remains have found what appears to be new bone fragments and debris from the towers under a service road and plan to widen the search, officials said Friday.

The discoveries come amid a renewed hunt for human remains that began in October after utility crews came upon some bones in an abandoned manhole, which was paved over and forgotten along the western edge of the trade center site.

With all the new paving and work that was done in the hurry to finish the trade center cleanup during the spring of 2002, that manhole and a number of other subterranean pockets were never searched for victims’ remains.

Officials have also been eyeing the loose landfill that surrounded the manholes as another potential hiding place for lost human remains. The city recently began digging a five-foot-wide trench through that area, a street-level corridor on the western perimeter known as the haul road, to test whether the entire pathway should be unearthed and all the fill should be sifted.

In a memo updating Mayor Michael Bloomberg on the remains operation, Deputy Mayor Ed Skyler said that debris from the towers has turned up in the loose material, and that the city will expand the digging there.

“Based on the appearance of what could be WTC-related debris in the trench, the majority of the haul road requires further excavation,” Skyler wrote. Hours later, word came from the site that workers had just discovered what looked like several new pieces of bone.

Crews sifting the material have found a variety of items like computer parts, office carpet, electrical wires and steel from the building. Until Friday, no human remains had been found in the loose fill; the only remains turned up since the renewed search began in October were some 200 bones in the initial manhole, plus a handful of fragments in three other manholes.

As to how hundreds of bones ended up in manholes, one theory is that loads of debris leaked in after large sharp pieces of steel pierced the ground and poked holes into the underground utility cavities.

Some 40 percent of the 2,749 people killed in the Sept. 11 attack there still have not had any remains identified. None of the new discoveries have been matched to any of the dead, but the medical examiner is working to do so.

Many families of the victims have pushed for a wider excavation under the service road. Some believe that crews in 2002 used rubble from the towers instead of clean soil when they were excavating the disaster site and building the road.

“Thank God. Thank God they’re finally doing this,” said Tim Sumner, whose brother-in-law, firefighter Joseph G. Leavey, was killed in the terrorist attacks.

Officials maintain that no debris was used as fill and that the remains and trade center materials being found under the road now are coming from a very bottom layer that was likely compacted under the mountain of rubble, and then eventually covered over with the clean soil.

Officials who have worked in the initial recovery operation at ground zero have told The Associated Press that they believe steel and other items were buried over 10 feet below the service road and could be attached to debris or remains. They have also told the AP that they believe many things were overlooked because the city was rushing to finish the job.

Skyler also told the mayor on Friday that officials had identified more underground areas to search in the streets around the site. After the October discovery, the city studied the surrounding blocks and mapped out about 430 manholes and other subterranean utility boxes that might need to be excavated and sifted.

Skyler said an additional 165 places will be searched. All of the material is now being combed off site at a new sifting facility that officials began using this month. The conveyor belt system accommodates several forensic workers at one time and was built specifically for the new remains search.

The deputy mayor also said Friday that the city estimates the yearlong project will cost $30 million.