Condos don’t just fall. Even 40-year-old condos don’t just collapse without something being horribly wrong with them. The Champlain Towers South condo in Surfside, Florida, was in the process of being repaired and upgraded to qualify for recertification when a building wing collapsed.
Like other such tragedies, this one has a high potential to affect building inspections and construction nationwide, depending on what caused the collapse.
An investigation into the collapse cannot begin until the fire and rescue workers stop looking for victims and survivors.
Florida International University researchers tell USA Today that, while they do not know if it had anything to do with the collapse, their research last year detected that the condo building has been sinking at an alarming rate for a decade. Shimon Wdowinski, a professor in the FIU Department of Earth and Environment, says satellite readings indicated the building was sinking at a rate of 2 millimeters per year. He says that could be enough to cause structural problems. But it is way too early to draw any conclusions.
The FIU study was focused on sea-level rise and coastal flooding and the structual problems that both can cause for coastal buildings like the condo.
Similarly, court records show that in 2015, a lawsuit claimed the building’s management didn’t maintain an exterior wall that had been damaged by water. The lawsuit resulted in the building’s management company paying for repairs. But again, wall cracks are a long way from structural damage severe enough to cause a collapse.
Structural engineers noted that if a building was shifting enough to collapse, it would probably have been preceded by cracked walls, ceilings and floors. There are no reports of that prior to this collapse.
The Miami Herald includes this observation:
“I’ve seen things like this happen before, but never in the United States of America,” said architect Kobi Karp, who has designed some of the most notable buildings in Miami-Dade, including the Surf Club in Surfside. “It’s a 40-year-old building and we have buildings in Miami from the 1920s. It’s a sad, sad scenario that we may find out could have been prevented.”
In Miami-Dade County, buildings must undergo a recertification inspection when they turn 40 years old. The recertification involves a visual inspection of the building and recertification of the electrical wiring.
That process was reportedly underway when the condo collapsed. The condo association had hired an engineer to begin designing upgrades to get the new certification. WPLG reports:
That’s what was happening at this time, with work being done on the roof and elsewhere in the condo, officials say.
“The engineer has been working for many months to develop the specifications to work with the city,” said Kenneth Direktor, an attorney for Champlain Towers South Condominium Association, Inc. “What was in its infancy was the actual construction, which had not started with the sole exception that they had already begun on the roof.”
A representative for the owner said that as part of the recertification they were going to be doing a concrete restoration project, but that was not yet underway.
Questions are also being raised about whether the construction of a new building next door could have weakened this building.
WFOR-TV interviewed Paul Danforth, senior engineer and vice president of Corporate at Universal Engineering, who explains some of the areas that investigators will no doubt examine:
One of the potential primary concerns for an older building such as this is in potential corrosion that could occur from chlorides from saltwater getting into the concrete of exposed surfaces. In the construction process today, Danforth noted that chemicals are used on those exposed surfaces like balconies aiming to prevent the chlorides from getting into the concrete and then working their way into the reinforcing steel of the building. But, in the 1980s, Danforth said, the same chemicals weren’t available in construction.
You can learn more about building collapses from the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Building collapse investigations follow a predictable order laid out by the federal government. Journalists should understand this. Your reporting may also follow this format:
(1) establishing the likely technical factor or factors responsible for the damage, failure, and/or successful performance of buildings and/or infrastructure in the aftermath of a disaster or failure event;
(2) evaluating the technical aspects of evacuation and emergency response procedures that contributed to the extent of injuries and fatalities sustained during the event;
(3) determining the procedures and practices that were used in the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of the buildings and/or infrastructure;
(4) recommending, as necessary, specific improvements to standards, codes, and practices as well as any research and other appropriate actions based on study findings.
There may be a new focus on the reinspection of buildings. In Florida, for example, we have pretty tough building codes, especially after they were strengthened following Hurricane Andrew and the 1981 collapse of another condo called the Harbour Cay Condominium in Cocoa Beach. That building was still under construction when it collapsed under the weight of a concrete roof as it was being put in place.
But once a building is occupied, the structural safety inspection requirements mostly end.
The Miami Herald thoughtfully got in front of this with a quick-minded op-ed that says:
The horror we’re experiencing today should serve as an urgent alert that older Florida structures need auditing and stricter oversight by the government.
Just as the FIU bridge collapse taught us many lessons about ignoring cracks on new construction, and about raising structures while people are driving underneath it, this condo collapse must also come under the most rigorous of investigations.
And this time, instead of giving culprits a new lease on continuing to operate soon forgetting the victims of neglect, this new terrible chapter calls for a new playbook for the oversight of renovations and stricter review of old structures.
None of us will be surprised when the investigations ahead turn up a system of lax and backlogged building inspections. In recent months, journalists have reported that inspections and citations slowed significantly during the pandemic and housing crisis.
Mass tragedies often lead to big changes in safety and inspection laws. Here is a Commerce Department list of some significant safety changes that resulted from disasters in the U.S.:
- World Trade Center (WTC) Investigation (2001), a total of 40 code changes, consistent with the recommendations, have been adopted in the 2009 and the 2012 editions of the I-Codes (viz., the International Building Code, IBC, and the International Fire Code, IFC). The I-Codes are a state-of-the-art model code used as the basis for building and fire regulations promulgated and enforced by all 50 U.S. states and key local jurisdictions. NFPA has adopted 10 additional WTC-related changes in the Life Safety Code (NFPA 101) used in 39 states, and two changes in the Uniform Fire Code (NFPA 1) used in 20 states.
- The Station Nightclub Fire (2003): sprinklers, restricted festival seating, crowd manager, and egress inspection record-keeping requirements for new and existing facilities adopted in NFPA 101 (Life Safety Code).
- Jarrell, TX, Tornado (1997): enhanced Fujita (EF) Tornado Intensity Scale adopted by NOAA’s National Weather Service.
- Northridge Earthquake (1994): design guidelines for seismic rehabilitation of existing welded steel frame buildings adopted by the American Institute of Steel Construction.
- Hurricane Andrew (1992): upgraded wind load provisions adopted in HUD's Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards.
- DuPont Plaza Hotel Fire, San Juan PR (1986): passage of the Hotel-Motel Sprinkler Act.
- L' Ambiance Plaza, Hartford CT (1982): improvements in OSHA's safety and inspection requirements for lift-slab construction.
Police are quitting in droves as Chauvin faces sentencing
As Derek Chauvin learns today how many years he will serve in prison, police departments around the nation are losing officers and having big problems recruiting new ones.
The New York Times reports the last year has been, for many, a breaking point:
A survey of almost 200 police departments indicated that retirements were up 45 percent and resignations rose by 18 percent in the year from April 2020 to April 2021 when compared with the previous 12 months, according to the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington policy institute.
New York City saw 2,600 officers retire in 2020 compared with 1,509 the year before. Resignations in Seattle increased to 123 from 34 and retirements to 96 from 43. Minneapolis, which had 912 uniformed officers in May 2019, is now down to 699. At the same time, many cities are contending with a rise in shootings and homicides.
And still, a recent Marist poll for PBS NewsHour says the majority of Americans trust police to “keep them safe” and “protect them from violent crime,” although Black Americans have far less confidence than white and Latino Americans.
