Report: Evidence of extensive corrosion in collapsed condo

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

MIAMI (AP) — Video released by a team of federal investigators shows more evidence of extensive corrosion and overcrowded concrete reinforcement in a Miami-area condominium that collapsed in June, killing 98 people.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology also announced Wednesday it will conduct a five-pronged investigation into the Champlain Towers South collapse, which will be led by Judith Mitrani-Reiser. She is a Cuban-born engineer who grew up in Miami.

The video shows densely packed steel reinforcement in various sections of the building, along with extensive corrosion where one column met the building’s foundation.

“The corrosion on the bottom of that column is astronomical,” Dawn Lehman, a professor of structural engineering at the University of Washington, told the Miami Herald. She said that amount of corrosion should have been obvious and documented as part of the 40-year inspection that was ongoing when the building in Surfside, Florida, collapsed June 24.



FILE - Rescue workers work in the rubble at the Champlain Towers South Condo in Surfside, Fla., in this Friday, June 25, 2021, file photo. Video released by a team of federal investigators shows more evidence of extensive corrosion and overcrowded concrete reinforcement in a Miami-area condominium that collapsed in June, killing 98 people. The National Institute of Standards and Technology also announced Wednesday, Aug. 25, it will conduct a five-pronged investigation into the Champlain Towers South collapse, which will be led by Judith Mitrani-Reiser. She is a Cuban-born engineer who grew up in Miami.(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/surfside-building-collapse-0c29e276cbc3bbcae4fd17d541480ba5

[Ford_Prefect]

1. I'm betting that corrosion was evident LONG before the building was compromised.

How many people looked the other way? Who paid them off to do it? Who has friends among the county and state officials who oversee such information and standards?

[bucolic_frolic]

2. 'Overcrowded concrete reinforcement'

Wonder what that's all about. Not built to standards, or were there no standards so extra steel was added with that idea that would increase strength.

[truthisfreedom]

8. If "overcrowded" refers to the reinforcement

Then I suspect they mean there was too much steel rebar and not enough concrete to hold it together.

[SWBTATTReg]

3. I suspect that rusting is a concern in any construction along the sea coasts. What I'm surprised...

by, is the lack of response or action to remedy the situation (the rusting, i.e., retrofit, etc.). I suspect that there is going to be a slew of ongoing lawsuits against just about everybody down there, the city, the county, the state, the building owners, the insurance companies, everybody...and there should be. This should have been caught and dealt w/, this is a common occurrence in seaside communities.

[Calista241]

4. The building was under the care of the residents.

So any proposed fixes to the building would have been paid for by assessments to the condo owners.

There were 136 condo owners, and if the proposed fixes cost $1m (as an example, but the cost of fix the concrete would have been many times that), that would have been an $8k charge to each of the owners.

These condos were priced in the $500k - $800k price range, so coming up with an $8k, $16k, or $24k payment would probably have been difficult for many of the owners.

[SWBTATTReg]

6. Some insurance carriers would have gladly paid these prices, if only $8K each...now they're facing

multiple times this $ amount. Oh well, it's too late for a lot of these people, they're or their family members are either dead or injured severely if they survived (I don't think any did, maybe a few lucky souls got out)...

[Bernardo de La Paz]

5. AP just made up fantasy phrase: "overcrowded concrete reinforcement". Do editors read?

Search for it and it only appears in stories about Surfside that contain the AP photo caption.

The true phrase is "overcrowded reinforcement" and you can append things like "in concrete".

"Overcrowded concrete reinforcement" is ridiculous on the face of it, because concrete never gets "overcrowded", but there can be too many reinforcement bars, even if only for cost.

[Skittles]

7. that caught my eye too

I thought, if that is an engineering term, surely they would define it? It sounds odd to me.

[Scruffy1]

9. The details of the rebar placement would be laid out on the structural blueprints.

The structural plans are done by structural engineering companies. Their was either an error on the plans or an error in construction that wasn't caught. This one is so obviously wrong that I find it amazing that no one asked any questions about in the process.

[Scruffy1]

10. The details of the rebar placement would be laid out on the structural blueprints.

The structural plans are done by structural engineering companies. Their was either an error on the plans or an error in construction that wasn't caught. This one is so obviously wrong that I find it amazing that no one asked any questions about in the process. I would also think that any experienced iron worker would have questioned it if it was an error on the prints. My first thought is that it is probably due to inexperienced labor and no oversight, but more will be revealed in court. When I was young the insurance companies required skilled union labor on all large projects, but that has gone by the wayside. You get what you pay for.