On a quiet Tuesday afternoon in Clearwater, Florida, workers renovating a ground-floor garage at South Beach Three witnessed an engineer’s worst nightmare: a primary concrete column cracked open, and the split refused to stop growing. Within just two hours, over 60 residents were rushed out of the 12-story beachfront condominium tower as emergency crews treated the building like an imminent disaster.
Only eight months earlier, licensed structural engineers had officially inspected the tower and certified it safe for occupancy under Florida’s post-Surfside milestone inspection laws. So how does a 12-story oceanfront high-rise pass safety checks, only to nearly lose a load-bearing column months later?
In this investigation, we uncover the chain of events behind the Clearwater condo evacuation: the hidden hollow voids eating the building from the inside, the city paperwork that arrived eight months late, the emergency steel spine running straight through residents’ bedrooms, and the strict rules governing life on top of temporary steel.
#florida #engineeringdisaster #structuralfailure #architecture
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I lived in Clearwater in the 70’s and saw those buildings going up. I even worked as a groundskeeper at that complex.
No one, and I repeat NO ONE wants AI
limited lifetime construction.. epifemic
building cement and glass towers on top of shifting sand banks with porous salt water filled limestone underneath – nothing over 3 stories and ideally 100% wood is really safe on sand bars – Miami Beach and the Keys used to be PARADISE when only wooden bungalows, cottages, and motels were built there, surrounded by tropical vegetation white sand and turquoise sea –
Our country is the most corrupt country in the history of the world. It provokes wars, threatens and invades other countries, and has killed millions of people who never harmed us since the end of WWII. Is it any wonder that its state governments may be thoroughly corrupt as well, with governors, legislators, agencies, and local politicians equally criminal and irresponsible? Could all of them rely on a citizenry that does not practice what Thomas Jefferson called "eternal vigilance" and often pays for its neglect with their lives?
It’s not difficult man; erect shoring at the perimeter of the failed column immediately, and additional shoring in the bays all around for added support. After this, every single column above and around that is not exposed must then be exposed ASAP to determine the extent of the column failure. Next I’d call an AISC certified structural steel fabricator and one that already bears State/County/City approved fabricator status with the Building Department jurisdiction(s). I’d ask if they had a 2’-0” x 2’-0” x 2 inch thick box column or a H shaped column exceeding 100 lbs per foot. I’d then have them fab up wide base plate that bears on the ground and wide flared area at the column’s top. You won’t be able to swing that into place to the exact height dimensions so the fabricator will need to bring solid plate steel shims to insert between the overhead concrete deck and the temporary steel column. All this work is temporary. From there, this temporary work will support the building while inspection of every single column directly above the damaged column occurs while the temporary fabrication is occurring; if more temp columns are needed, fabricate them at the same time.
U couldn't PAY ME to live their!!! 😐
Building code simply behind the times, can't rule out corruption. X-ray analysis would have caught it. After so many years the settling would deform those concrete columns. Probably should have been steel to begin with! 🥵🥵
The problem in Florida, specially Miami is corruption. The latinos accept any type of bribe, they do not care.
did any 1 check the geotech report for sulphte & chloride content of the soils??
Could use a rubber mallet to strike each column and listen for a hollow sound?
Crazy how a $100M beach tower goes from luxury promise to emergency evacuation this fast. Coastal megaprojects keep underestimating structural risk — tourism destinations built on sand, literally and financially.