Posted on 06/24/2021 12:32:28 AM PDT by Enterprise
"Authorities are responding to Champlain Towers following a collapse of the 12-floor residential complex. There are reports of people screaming under the rubble.
More to follow!"
(Excerpt) Read more at citizenfreepress.com ...
The seismologists will determine if there were one (collapse), or two (boom and then collapse) events I'm sure.
Florida has a Threshold inspection law that came from the collapse of a condo when they were pouring the 6th floor deck. Happened due to lack of inspection of the shoring and re-shoring underneath. Threshold inspection is another independent inspection on all structural components of a commercial building. This building was probably built prior to that law being enacted.
Going to be interesting to see why this happened.
Ha!
I think that happened because they were stressing the PT cables prior to concrete reaching design strength?
From Google Maps...
There are eleven Jewish synagogues, schools, and Jewish centers within a 2 mile radius of this condo catastrophe.
Police Fire EMT scanners https://www.broadcastify.com/listen/top
According to this article, the sand in south east Florida is only a couple of feet deep, with limestone below. In the fourth paragraph down.
Good question.
Salt water will destroy all these buildings over time, there is constant maintenance to ensure this doesn’t happen. Perhaps some flaw in materials enabled this to take place faster than they could manage the damage? It is hard to imagine without human intervention/incompetence. Structural integrity checks are part of maintenance, especially in a luxury condo.
From looking at Berlin Freepers link it looks unlikely it was a bomb. IMHO a structural flaw is most likely. If you look at the remaining portion where the collapsed section attached it appears to be sagging to the right. Just a WAG: improper piling design.
Looking at the structure still left to the south south of it the main body of the building is still standing and only the overhanging section collapsed.
I see 2 wing walls and 4 pillars holding up all the cantilevered area that collapsed. Those pillars are under a LOT of load, 40 years of salt and weather could have easily gotten through the concrete and attacked the steel beams inside. Only good thing to come of this disaster is that the mirrored building to the south that is still standing will give them a lot of clues as to what and how it happened.
Gut tells me it wasn’t intentional, but 3 or 4 kicker charges left against those pillars would cause what I’m seeing, and if there is a garage structure underneath those pillars would be exposed there and hidden from view as well. Hopefully there is security video in the pillar areas that can be reviewed. If it was intentional those charges would be muffled as well, at 1 a.m. on a Thursday morning charges set like that would be easy for people to miss when combined with the collapse right after.
Still going with my gut, salt spray and negligence is where my money would be.
That’s true. But, limestone cave-ins are not unknown in South Florida. I think it’s called ‘dissolution’ which essentially means because of the acidity of the rainwater, the limestone can simply dissolve over time. What seems like reliably firm ground to build on one decade, is nothing but a hollow cavern filled with ground water several decades later.
Miami/Dade is one of the highest at-risk areas for sinkholes in the entire state.
Presser in about 50 minutes? https://youtu.be/kagz7maSf6k
Sinkhole?
“Just a WAG: improper piling design”
It appears there are adjacent Apt. Buildings of similar if not exact design. Wondering if everyone will need to vacate for retrofitting?
Prayers up for all concerned.
In any case, the ground doesn’t seem particularly stable. Sand on top of bedrock, and much of the bedrock is limestone.
Wikipedia:”In the 1920s, Fisher and others created much of Miami Beach as landfill by dredging Biscayne Bay; this man-made territory includes Star, Palm, and Hibiscus Islands, the Sunset Islands, much of Normandy Isle, and all of the Venetian Islands except Belle Isle.”
—
Much of Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood was built on dirt fill; thus the name “Back Bay”. When you look at really old maps of Boston, only the downtown rests on undisturbed soil. The entire Back Bay, South End, South Boston, and much of East Boston is fill.
Many of the old buildings in this area actually rest on wooden pilings driven into the muck. The pilings, now some 150+ years old, don’t rot because they are actually below the water table.
I did read that if Boston is ever struck by a sizable quake, and it does have periodic very small quakes, that the muck in the Back Bay would liquify resulting in the pilings shifting and buildings toppling.
We live on a world that from our short time perspective appears solid, but it’s really not.
Biden: "This is yet another reason why we need an infrastructure bill."
If it wasn’t for democrats the world would be perfect. Life
goes on and so will the democrats.
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