Surfside condo collapse: New federal report reveals flaws emerged weeks before 2021 disaster
Regulation changes after Surfside condo collapse
A newly released federal report from the National Institute of Standards and Technology reveals that the structural failures at Champlain Towers South in Surfside began three weeks before its deadly collapse in 2021. FOX 13's Briona Arradondo reports.
SURFSIDE, Fla. - A newly released federal report from the National Institute of Standards and Technology reveals that the structural failures at Champlain Towers South in Surfside began three weeks before its deadly collapse in 2021.
The technical findings explain how design flaws and severe corrosion compromised the building's structural integrity over 40 years.
Surfside building investigation
What we know:
In the NIST technical findings report, federal investigators found that two critical connections between the garage columns and the pool deck slab failed initially.
The column failure caused cracks to grow and expand over three weeks until the deck broke away from the main tower, which could not support the remaining weight.
An engineer who inspected the property back in 2017 said he wasn’t surprised by the NIST report’s technical findings.
"They wanted me to perform an inspection to see why there was a planter that was leaking on top of one of the cars," said Greg Batista, P.E., president of G. Batista Engineering and Construction in Fort Lauderdale. "I immediately told them, look, this is not a waterproofing problem. This is a structural problem."
Decades of structural corrosion, alongside changes made during the original design and construction that did not meet code standards, ultimately triggered the disaster, the NIST report found.
Tragedy, 5 years later
The backstory:
The Champlain Towers South building collapsed in the early morning hours on June 24, 2021, killing 98 people.
The family members of the victims killed in the collapse received a staggering $1.02 billion settlement that was approved by a judge in 2022 after the tragedy.
Rescuers spent weeks carefully digging through mountains of concrete in an effort to find survivors, and later to recover the remains of those who died.
Champlain Towers was in the midst of its 40-year structural review when it partially crumbled to the ground.
Florida safety laws
What's next:
Florida lawmakers have implemented stricter safety mandates, including mandatory milestone inspections for aging 30+ year-old buildings three stories or taller, and then for every 10 years after.
Florida law also requires condo buildings near the coastline to do these milestone inspections once the building reaches 25 years of age.
Condominiums are also required to conduct a Structural Integrity Reserve Study and maintain savings accounts of at least $25,000 specifically dedicated to immediate repairs from the study.
"The most efficient way to tackle those costs is to handle those projects as soon as they're identified and not to defer things," said Matt Kuisle, a reserve specialist for Community Associations Institute and a board member of his South Tampa condominium association. "It reminded us all that no building will last forever without proper maintenance and repair."
The Source: The information in this story was gathered by FOX 13’s Briona Arradondo from a technical report by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and an interview with structural engineer Greg Batista of G. Batista Engineering & Construction, and CAI Reserve Specialist Matt Kuisle.