Posted on 06/26/2021 11:28:59 AM PDT by rxsid
Engineer Warned of ‘Major Structural Damage’ at Florida Condo Complex
A consultant in 2018 urged the managers to repair cracked columns and crumbling concrete. The work was finally about to get underway when the building collapsed.
Three years before the deadly collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium complex near Miami, a consultant found alarming evidence of “major structural damage” to the concrete slab below the pool deck and “abundant” cracking and crumbling of the columns, beams and walls of the parking garage under the 13-story building.
The engineer’s report helped shape plans for a multimillion-dollar repair project that was set to get underway soon — more than two and a half years after the building managers were warned — but the building suffered a catastrophic collapse in the middle of the night on Thursday, trapping sleeping residents in a massive heap of debris.
The complex’s management association had disclosed some of the problems in the wake of the collapse, but it was not until city officials released the 2018 report late Friday that the full nature of the concrete and rebar damage — most of it probably caused by years of exposure to the corrosive salt air along the South Florida coast — became chillingly apparent.
“Though some of this damage is minor, most of the concrete deterioration needs to be repaired in a timely fashion,” the consultant, Frank Morabito, wrote about damage near the base of the structure as part of his October 2018 report on the 40-year-old building in Surfside, Fla. He gave no indication that the structure was at risk of collapse, though he noted that the needed repairs would be aimed at “maintaining the structural integrity” of the building and its 136 units.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
...I’m fairly certain that those lawyer weasel words won’t be received by the families very well though.
This wasn’t an agency budget issue, this was a privately owned condo building. “Agency budget” isn’t relevant
This will be the radicals "in" to blame DeSantis for this disaster. He, after-all, issued a stay at home except for essential services order.
I believe the same happened here. Covid and the government shut it down.
Sounds about right.
Thanks for posting that... excellent set of pictures pre-failure especially around the pool area.
Downside of buying a condo.
I read they were starting up $15 million in repairs. I think that works out to $95,000 per unit for condos in the $600,000 to $700,000 range. How long did the HOA board delay starting repairs? Think someone is going to be sued?
Imagine needing $95,000 in repairs to your house. That would cause a hit to your equity, perhaps put you under.
Imagine if you bought it one or two years ago and just found out it needed this much in repairs? Think somebody is going to be sued?
Wonder what this will do to the large condo market in Florida and elsewhere? What about timeshares?
I've no doubt, they...and the mayor (& "media) will put the blame on DeSantis for issuing a stay at home order, except for essential workers.
That work couldn't start last year because of it.
He's a raising star in the (R) party, and they have to find some way to take him out politically. This may be it.
The evil bassturds will get a twofer out of it.
I would have seen the concrete damage and walked away without buying a condo in that building
Still can’t find info on builders...looking though
The report itself is almost cursory, almost as if the association wanted the lowest possible fee from the engineer and had him do the minimum.
One thing did stand out on first glance: the engineer offered his opinion that the waterproofing problems on the pool deck were the result of a design flaw, which makes sense if you stop to consider that the other possibility, deferred maintenance, would have been the responsibility of the association (who hired the engineer to do the report.)
The city has put the original plans on their website, and based on a quick look it’s hard to say what sort of waterproofing was used in the “split slab” condition at the pool deck. They call out a particular brand at the planters (and misspell it), but it’s not readily apparent what was used elswhere. The original “high” roof above the 13th floor was just a commercial built-up roof, which should have been replaced at least four times over the life of the building in that climate, but it would not be surprising to find that the association didn’t want to spend that money.
Other sources have claimed that each unit had a 100K assessment for “balcony repairs”. That’s 15MM for the building, and you can bet there was more than just “balcony repairs” for that much money.
Problem is many are purchased from afar by foreign nationals wanting a safer place for their money than places like Banco de Venezuela.
Math and engineering are hard.
And racist.
Thanks for finding and posting!
bump
Maybe. Probably.
It sure looks like the spalling exposed some rebar, which appears to have corroded. It also looks like there might be insufficient “cover” in some of those locations. Some of the other photos look bad, but are mostly cosmetic.
Looking at the original structural framing plans, it’s all mild steel, no post-tensioning, which would make sense for that era, and it doesn’t “look” to be over-reinforced. In other words, the failure should have begun with plastic deformation of the reinforcing bar, not with a sudden compressive failure of the concrete.
IE, there should have been (and may have been) signs of imminent failure. We won’t find one single point of failure, but a long chain of contributing factors, imho.
Have a look at the cover letter & page 7 of the report from 2018.
Not global warming this time, it was covid-19 attacking the concrete.
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