Federal Team Gives Insight Into Investigation Of The Surfside Condo Collapse
A federal agency investigating the technical reasons for the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside, Florida, has assembled a six-pronged team and begun its fact-finding process. But answers won't come quickly.
"We think it will take two years" to draw conclusions, Jennifer Huergo, director of the public affairs office for the National Institute of Standards and Technology, told Bisnow Monday. NIST is leading one of about a dozen investigations into the collapse, but it has priority over the site.
NIST's National Construction Safety Team Advisory Committee held a meeting Monday to share updates on the progress of its investigation.
"Obviously, it’s the very early stages,” Reginald DesRoches, chair of the committee, told the Sun-Sentinel. “We need to get this right. It’s not something that’s going to happen quickly.”
The team is working with $22M in supplemental funding from Congress, the paper reported.
Lead investigator Judith Mitrani-Reiser and associate lead investigator Glenn R. Bell shared a presentation about how their investigation will proceed.
The NIST presentation didn't offer any theories on what triggered the collapse, but it did outline principles that will guide the investigation. For Champlain Towers South to have collapsed, as it did this June, killing 98, certain physical demands must have exceeded capacity, according to the presentation.
The investigators will be analyzing what loads and environmental conditions were acting on the structure at the time of failure, such as wind, thermal elements, blasts, flooding and vibrations.
To analyze capacity, the investigators will look into the makeup of the structure, its original design and construction, modifications made, materials used, soil and more.
The work is divided among six different project teams: one each for building and code history, evidence preservation, remote sensing analysis, materials science, geotechnical engineering and structural engineering. Once they’ve analyzed all the information, they will develop failure hypotheses.
For now, next steps include reviewing documentation pertaining to the design, construction and maintenance of the condo; interviewing people with historic knowledge of construction in the South Florida area; lab testing specimens retrieved from the site; and managing 3D geospatial data on everything from concrete columns to site geology. In August, NIST released a video showing extensive corrosion and overcrowded concrete reinforcement in the building.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is leading its own investigation, as are Miami-Dade County and the town of Surfside. At least 11 private firms have also been engaged to do investigations for various parties, according to Engineering News-Record.
Allyn Kilsheimer, a structural engineer retained by Surfside to lead its investigation, said he hopes to issue findings by the anniversary of the collapse in June. He told Bisnow Tuesday that his team of about 20 people, working with "substantially less" of a budget than the federal team, was only given access to the site about 10 days ago.
"We only were allowed to do physical measurements of what's there. So we did that. We are still working on trying to get the access to the site to do the sampling and testing," he said. He is also seeking access to materials that have been taken off-site for storage.
The process is complicated because of dozens of civil lawsuits over the collapse. A court receiver is coordinating access to the site and the sharing of evidence.
At the site, "you have the slab, you have the foundation under the slab, you have the perimeter concrete walls, you have pieces of columns everywhere, you have a couple pieces of ramp walls, you have a couple pieces of the shear walls, and you have the pool itself still sitting there," Kilsheimer said.
As for what triggered the collapse, Kilsheimer said there are "50 or 60 things that we're focusing on. Did I see anything out there that said, 'Holy shit, there's a smoking gun?' No. Did I see anything out there that surprised me? Not exactly."
He has led investigations of other high-profile collapses, including the Pentagon after 9/11 and the 2018 fall of a pedestrian bridge at Florida International University.
A lone bidder, billionaire developer Hussain Sajwani, owner of Dubai-based Damac Properties, has offered to buy the Surfside site for $120M to build a new luxury high-rise.
