scheduled tribe. PETERSBURG, Florida (AP) — Some concrete pillars have cracked. The parking garage was often filled with corrosive salt water. And while the roof was under repair, the workers on the tower from above ran fast for weeks.
Officials don’t yet know whether any — or all — of those factors caused the Florida beachside condominium tower to suddenly collapse on Thursday morning.
But experts are closely examining a 2018 report that identified several issues with the Champlain Towers South building in Surfside, including “major structural damage” to a concrete structural slab beneath its pool deck, which is in need of major repairs.
“Failure to replace waterproofing in the near future will cause the extent of concrete deterioration to rapidly expand,” the report said From the engineering firm Morabito Consultants. According to the report released by Surfside officials late Friday, along with other documents, the situation is a “major error” associated with the original construction of the building.
The report also uncovered “abundant cracking” and other defects in concrete columns, beams and walls in the parking garage. Some of the damage was minor, while other pillars exposed and eroded the rebar.
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It was not immediately clear from the documents whether the issue or the others identified in the report had ever been dealt with, or had any role in the building’s collapse. The firm’s president, Frank Morabito, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Saturday.
Photos of missing residents are posted on a temporary memorial at the site of a collapsed building in Surfside, Florida, north of Miami Beach, on June 26, 2021. (Andrea Sarkos/AFP)
The building was in the middle of its 40-year recertification process, which requires detailed structural and electrical inspections. In an interview on Friday, Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said he was not sure the inspection was complete, but said it could contain important clues.
“It should have been a very straightforward thing,” Burkett said. “Buildings don’t just fall down in America. there is a reason. We have to find out what is causing that.”
The collapse of the 12-story tower left at least four people dead and 159 missing as of Friday, and there are many questions about how this could have happened – and whether other similar buildings are in danger.
Surfside Town Clerk Sandra McCready said in an email that details of the Champlain Towers re-certification inspection will be made public once it is complete.
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniela Levin Cava said at a news conference Friday that she saw no evidence of a sinkhole — much more common in other parts of Florida — or some perpetrator, such as a bomb.
“I can tell you that at this point in time, they haven’t found any evidence of foul play,” she said.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniela Levine Cava speaks during a press conference after a building partially collapsed on Surfside North of Miami Beach, Florida on June 24, 2021 (Eva Marie Uzketgui / AFP)
In addition, more attention is paid to ocean water, which is increasing in South Florida and elsewhere because of climate change. Last year, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law a measure that would require developers to complete studies of sea level rise before starting publicly funded projects.
Like everyone else, the governor wants answers about the reasons for the collapse as soon as possible.
“We need a definitive answer to how this might have happened,” DeSantis told a news conference. “It’s a really unique kind of tragedy; in the middle of the night, half the building collapses just like that.”
Meanwhile, the land on which the Champlain Towers sit is slowly sinking, according to a study published last year by an environmental professor at Florida International University.
But Professor Semyon Vadovinsky cautioned against blaming the caves for the collapse. The study used satellite data collected between 1993 and 1999 to study land sinks in Norfolk, Virginia and Miami Beach.
In a video interview released by the university, Wdowinski said his study found several examples of Earth sinking, some of which are causing cracks in buildings – which he called “quite common” in Florida.
“In most cases, these buildings just move,” he said, “in the case of surfsides there have been no catastrophic collapses, which was very unfortunate.”
Another theory is that the ubiquitous saltwater in the region, which is subject to flooding during the so-called King Tide events, is infiltrating the concrete supports, reinforcing the steel-reinforced rebar inside and weakening the concrete. Used to be.
Abi Agheyere, an engineering researcher at Drexel University, said determining whether there was such a fall could be a key to the collapse.
“Did a column fail on its own? This column has been carrying this load for 40 years, why would it fail now? Said Agheyere, adding that it’s rare for rebar to be damaged without anyone noticing “You’ve gotta have concrete popping out, falling.”
Rescuers work on the remains of the Champlain Towers South condo on June 25, 2021 in Surfside, Florida. (AP photo/Gerald Herbert)
Others have cited frequent flooding in the building’s lower parking garage, including the potential for water seeping under the porous limestone rock on which the barrier islands that comprise Surfside and Miami Beach lie.
Surfside officials said roofing work was underway on the now-collapsed tower, but have downplayed the possibility that work was a cause. Barry Cohen, a lawyer who escaped the crippled Champlain Towers building with his wife, said the roof work may have been part of a “perfect storm” of reasons that combined to bring the structure down.
“They were doing a new roof. And I think, throughout the day, the building was faster and faster and faster. They’ve been doing it for over a month,” Cohen said.
Another issue cited by some is construction in a nearby building, which could have created vibrations that weakened the Champlain Towers. Cohen said he had previously raised concerns that the work was possibly causing broken pavers on the pool deck.
The collapse is already attracting lawsuits, including one filed an hour after the collapse by attorney Brad Sohn, against the condo’s homeowners association, seeking damages for negligence and other causes for all of the tower’s residents.
The association, the lawsuit argues, “could have prevented the collapse of Champlain Towers South through the practice of simple care, safety measures, and oversight.”
An attorney for the association, Ken Director, did not respond Friday to an email requesting comment.