Pool cause of Miami collapse?

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jamjam

Well-known member
Jun 25, 2020
684
NY
Pool Size
25000
Surface
Vinyl
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
I have been reading a lot about the tragic building collapse in Miami - there have been a few nuggets of info that have pointed to the pool possibly being a contributing cause of the issue - the video of the collapse shows it as a foundation failure as the building collapses from the ground up - there had been various engineering reports of leaks from the pool above the parking deck causing structural issues. And the article I have linked below has an eye witness account of a sinkhole opening up at the pool location seconds before the collapse. These buildings are built on the sand, mostly on 50ft concrete pylons, I am seeing a potential prolonged leak from the pool becoming an emerging theory. I would not be surprised if the pool quickly becomes the main focus in the media.

9BEFA526-1EB9-4A9F-98CE-BADFB0DCFAB6.jpeg

nypost.com

Woman told hubby on phone she saw pool deck cave in as Florida condo collapsed

Cassie Stratton woke her husband in Washington, DC and frantically told him that their building was shaking before making the startling comments about a sinkhole, according to the outlet.
nypost.com nypost.com

nypost.com

Former building inspector denies getting copy of damning Florida condo study

A former building inspector has denied he ever received the 2018 private engineering study which uncovered “major structural damage” at the Florida condo tower that collapsed last week.
nypost.com nypost.com
 
The latest I read said that the parking garage flooded on a regular basis and didn't drain well. Standing water over a long period of time "could" undermine the foundations causing the sinkhole that was reported.
 
Yeah I think whether from the improper draining of the pool deck, the pool itself, or sea water intrusion it looks like the parking structure or sub grade was weakened over time. How incredibly sad.
 
It wasn’t the pool itself that was in question. In 2018 an engineer found that the building was built with a major engineering flaw. The pool deck was perfectly level and wouldn’t allow water to flow away from it. As a consequence the water apparently caused damage to the structure under the deck over time. Also the underground parking deck had some issues with spalling concrete in some of the support columns. From what I understand the engineer flagged it as severe, but didn’t say the building was in danger of collapse. Apparently the needed repairs were going to run around 8 million and eventually the cost climbed to16 million. I read a report that said that the residents knew about the issues, but they had concerns about the cost of the repairs but they new something had to be done. Apparently the building was being monitored though and no one apparently indicated it was in immediate danger of collapse. Basically the building had issues, but no one knows yet what caused it to collapse and anything at this point is speculation. They will figure it out, but it’s a process that is expected to take months.
 

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All it takes is failure of one key area of support and then cascading failure as each subsequent compromised area can’t support the redirected load.

the two main theories are the pool deck as you say and sea water intrusion from underneath
 
YippeeSkippy said:
Being that it was condos, when the lawsuits start (if they haven't already???) who will they look to sue? Themselves as owners, or who?
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Insurance, management company, board of directors? but yeah you can’t get blood from a stone - in this case it is possible that the corporation spans multiple buildings so there are more principals than just the occupants of this building.
 
From the looks of the video and some of the reports by structural engineers, I suspect that the building may have been underbuilt. Most of the structure was concrete and rebar instead of beams which allowed the floors to pancake down the columns. Looking at the pile of rubble, there don't appear to be any vertical support structures still standing.

www.mynews13.com

Engineer sees similarity in South Florida, Cocoa Beach collapses

He says Surfside building looks like flat-slab construction
www.mynews13.com www.mynews13.com
 
there are two different piles of rubble, the main area of collapse was the middle portion were the building fell from the ground up and basically crumbled and disintegrated. The pancake pile is the tower that fell 15 seconds later that was mechanically separate from the initial failure. I think different forces were in play.
 
Orion7319 said:
It’s all very tragic. I think ultimately it’s going to lead to more frequent and more rigorous high rise inspections.
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At least for high rises built on sand next to the ocean. But FL has pretty stringent standards. They were in the middle of their 40 year recertification (then they need to get recertification every 10 years thereafter).
 
jamjam said:
At least for high rises built on sand next to the ocean. But FL has pretty stringent standards. They were in the middle of their 40 year recertification (then they need to get recertification every 10 years thereafter).
Click to expand...
If I owned a condo in its sister unit, I would be very concerned.
 

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