CRUMBLING

Concrete Slab at Center of Surfside Collapse Had Been a Problem for 25 Years: Report

A 1996 permit for “concrete structural repairs” indicated that the pool deck’s issues had long plagued the Champlain Towers South.

A pool deck suspected of being at the root of the Champlain Towers South building collapse in Surfside had been a problem for more than 25 years, a newly disclosed permit shows. The town released a 1996 construction permit that showed the parking garage’s ceiling, which helps make up the pool deck, needed “concrete structural repair” to seal 500 feet of cracks and replace a 20-square-foot slab. The cracks were treated by Western Waterproofing Company of America, which indicates water infiltration was partially responsible. The $156,000 repairs were completed about a year and a half later, coming only about 15 years after the building was built.

Abieyuwa Aghayere, a professor of structural engineering at Drexel University, told the Miami Herald that the repairs were unusual so soon after construction. It indicates there were “problems with water infiltration, which is saltwater infiltration, all these years.” Footage from the night of the collapse shows the garage and pool deck caving in before the rest of the building fell.