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SURFINGfla. — Seven months after an oceanfront apartment collapsed and 98 people died nearby MiamiAdded temporary structural supports to areas in the sister tower’s underground garage.
The Champlain Towers North condominium board said in a January 19 statement to unit owners that the shoring was installed “very carefully” last month as part of an ongoing inspection by a structural engineer, the Miami Herald reported.
The flat was built in 1981 and has almost the same design as Champlain Towers South, which partially collapsed in the early morning of June 24. The official cause of the collapse has yet to be determined.
Weeks later, the board of directors of Champlain Towers North declared the building safe and said it had been given a “clean health report” by several investigators, including Allyn Kilsheimer, who was hired by the town. surf edge.
Kilsheimer said at a press conference in July that some Champlain North residents had asked him if they should stay or move. “I would let my children and grandchildren stay in this building,” he told news outlets.
Residents were given the option to voluntarily evacuate with resources provided by the Miami Foundation, but most decided to stay, The Herald reported.
“If surf edge If they had any doubts about the safety of this building, they would have evacuated us six months ago,” Naum Lusky, president of the Champlain North apartment association, told the newspaper.
Dawn Lehman, an engineering professor at the University of Washington who did an analysis of the south tower for the Herald, said the “shores” added to the garage put these health and safety statements into question.
“It was premature to declare it a ‘clean bill of health’ at the time,” Lehman said. “And it’s probably too early to tell now.”
He said that while the presence of the shoring didn’t mean the building was in immediate danger of falling, it did show that “another civil engineer decided this building didn’t have a clean bill of health.”
Kilsheimer told the Herald that he only did a visual inspection and had a limited number of concrete examples. He did not provide the results of the tests performed on these samples and refused to give the building a clean sanitation report.
“We didn’t do a full assessment of anything in that building, I was just giving people my opinion on what I saw based on my experience,” he said.
Records show engineer Youssef Hachem, whom Champlain North hired to inspect the building. Miami-Dade County recertification for 40-year-old structures.
In a letter dated September 27, 2021, to the Champlain North apartment board chairman, Hachem said his team has completed a visual inspection of the building, but a more complete structural inspection is ongoing.
“We are not complete at this time in our investigations, but we are confident that the building is safe to live in,” Hachem wrote. The full investigation will include scans to find the reinforcing steel in the concrete and core samples to determine the concrete’s strength, according to the town’s recommendations outlined in the letter.
surf edge Spokesperson Malarie Dauginikas told the newspaper that the 40-year recertification of the building will take place on December 28, but the town has given a 90-day extension.
Lusky said the shoring in the garage was “a way to further secure the building.” He said he was confident the building was safe and expected to receive a full engineering report within two weeks detailing any necessary repairs.
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