Engineers 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.
After Hurricane Andrew hit southern Florida in 1992, there were oodles of stories about how the building inspectors in Dade County falsified timeheet and reports on new construction. Carl Hiaasen wrote about drive-by inspections and inspections signed off for an envelope of cash. I've not seen any stories connecting those times to the Surfside condo collapse, so you've read about it first, here.
1 comment:
Dad had a home construction company in the 60’s and 70’s here in SE Michigan. Standard practice to get a certificate of occupancy was to leave an envelope of presidential portraits in a kitchen drawer. Later that day or the next, the CoO was on the counter and signed. Just the cost of doing business in the D, he said.
Dale
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