July 3, 2021
By Eileen AJ Connelly
Ross lives in Miami Bay Towers, across the marina from Palm Bay Towers, where the report, prepared in December, found “structural deficiencies” in the 26-story, 68-unit building, one of the only ones in the city built over the water.
It was the underwater portion that the engineering firm, The Falcon Group, pointed to as having several areas with concrete cracking and chipping, and rust spots. “Concrete deficiencies at the support columns, if not addressed in the near future, may affect the structural integrity of the building,” the report on Palm Bay Towers said.
Following the June 24 collapse of Champlain Towers South, a 12-story condo in the town of Surfside north of Miami, the concerns of the residents of Miami Bay Towers grew.
“Everybody is petrified, because as we’re looking at this monolith across the marina and if it came down, it would come down on us,” Ross said....
The residents of any seaside community have a real concern before them, was their condominium built with SUBSTANDARD construction? Every high-rise owner needs to be asking, "How sound are the buildings for human residence?"
This building may or may not have received substandard construction for the time it has been built in. If there was substandard construction there are most likely substandard building materials. That is all about liability and the law as to negligent homicide. The idea every high rise owner has to be afraid is not the case.
Engineers (click here) who have visited or examined photos of the wreckage of the Champlain Towers South condominium complex have been struck by a possible flaw in its construction: Critical places near the base of the building appeared to use less steel reinforcement than called for in the project’s original design drawings.
The observation is the first detail to emerge pointing to a potential problem in the quality of construction of the 13-story condo tower in Surfside, Fla., that collapsed last month, killing at least 24 and leaving up to 121 still unaccounted for.
Reached by phone, Allyn E. Kilsheimer, a forensic engineering expert hired by the town of Surfside to investigate the collapse, said the investigation was still in its early stages. But he confirmed there were signs that the amount of steel used to connect concrete slabs below a parking deck to the building’s vertical columns might be less than what the project’s initial plans specified.
“The bars might not be arranged like the original drawings call for,” Mr. Kilsheimer said in an interview. He said he would need to inspect the rubble more closely to determine whether in fact the slab-to-column connections contained less steel than expected....
The owners of this particular condo had warnings about the building and years passed from the report of the engineers that initially found the building to be unsafe. So, the idea that this is going to happen to others is not founded in fact. The USA has become a society of fear and this is the reaction to one tragedy. All high-rise buildings are not in question.
There is a report by a couple that was eyewitnesses. The video is conclusive to the events of that day. The water from the pool rushed into the garage. That is not alone a reason for a building to collapse, but, the event was enough to cause a DETERIORATING foundation to give way to water weight and water pressure.
High-rise buildings need to be inspected regularly, especially now that the climate is severe and extremes of heat and cold are mostly unpredictable from season to season. But, with regular inspections demanded by regulation and reporting there can be problems resolved before they become this terribly bad. The idea every condo along this waterway is in question is not accurate. However, the idea of sea-level rise is real and seaside residents need to be aware of the reality and the potential to cause problems.
July 1, 2021By Eliott C. McLaughlin and Rebekah Riess
Sara Nir and her two children (click here) were in their ground-floor condo at Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida, moments before it partially collapsed. She was checking emails when they heard knocking sounds, she said.
The knocking grew louder before she heard a "smash," as if a wall had collapsed in the unit above hers. She thought it was construction, she said. It didn't make sense, not at 1:10 in the morning.
Nir eventually found the building's security guard, and as she complained about the noise, she said, they heard a boom. She ran toward the sound and witnessed the building's underground garage collapse. It was like something out of a movie, she said.
The mother's account is the latest to suggest last week's deadly collapse began in the lower reaches of the building. Several engineers have told CNN that video of the collapse suggests the failure began near the structure's foundation, and a 2018 survey prepared ahead of the building's mandated 40-year certification cited problems in the pool area and the garage beneath it....
...A pool contractor who was at the tower the Tuesday before the collapse said that while the pool deck area looked fine from the surface, he observed standing water in the garage and cracks in the pool maintenance room, the Herald reported....
...A 2018 photo,shared with CNN by Tom Henz, shows the earlier stages of the crack engineers and experts consulted by CNN say appears to be the same crack visible in 2021, although the more recent photo appears to show it has worsened. The cause of the apparent deterioration is not clear.
After inspecting the building in 2018, engineer Frank Morabito wrote in a report that "failed waterproofing" below the pool deck was "causing major structural damage to the concrete structural slab below these areas," and warned that failure to replace it in the near future would cause "concrete deterioration to expand exponentially."...
