OP-ED: Florida Condo Collapse: A Lot of Blame for Everyone

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As Washington politicians continue to play games with an urgent $ 1 trillion infrastructure relief bill, the nation has been hit hard at the cost of ignoring what needs to be rebuilt in this country.

The collapse of half of the Champlain Towers South condo in Surfside, Florida should be a wake-up call to all of us. The trillion dollar repair bill is on hold because much of America, like the Champlain Towers, is in dire need of repairs.

As tireless workers continue to comb through the wreckage in Florida, lawsuits have already been filed by survivors. By the time you read this, there will probably be more.

So far, the lawsuits point to the building’s co-ownership association and its failure “to adequately secure the building, putting the lives and property of its occupants and visitors … in danger, leading to the collapse of the building. the building “.

Indeed, the association received an engineering report in 2018 which found “major structural damage” in the swimming pool area and the underground car park. Immediate and costly repairs have been indicated.

That’s when many residents questioned paying for expensive assessments to fund the $ 9 million work. After all, at a board meeting on November 15, 2018, Ross Prieto, a building official for the town of Surfside, said the building appeared to be “in very good condition.” What should the inhabitants think? They had bought their accommodation believing that the building was in good condition. If there were any serious construction issues to deal with, they were surely someone else’s responsibility.

Then, two months ago, the president of the association wrote to her neighbors to warn that “concrete deterioration is accelerating” and estimated that the cost of repairs had jumped to more than 16 million dollars. No repairs were underway when the building collapsed, trapping some 160 people under tons of debris they called home.

But is the condominium association to blame? What about building managers, local building inspectors, architect or project developer or construction companies who installed what turned into visibly rotten rebar and concrete? crumbled? It seems there is a lot of criticism to be made and this fact will surely keep litigation in the courts for years to come.

Gregg Schlesinger is a former construction project engineer and lawyer specializing in construction defects. He says the experts should have sounded the alarm bells.

“The building speaks to us,” he said. “It tells us that we have a serious problem.” Schlesinger says building managers “kicked the street. The maintenance was incorrect. These were all red flags that needed to be addressed. They weren’t.”

You’ve probably heard someone say, “Buildings in America don’t just collapse. But they do, for a variety of reasons: older, unmaintained buildings, those with shoddy original design or construction, buildings with negligent renovations, and structures where home inspectors have received bribes. -vin to look away when infringements have been discovered. It all happened because someone didn’t do their job.

For too long, municipalities across the country have postponed repairing crumbling bridges, roads, dams and other utilities. If we didn’t realize this before now, surely we should understand today that the warnings of construction experts should not be ignored. The culprit should also not be allowed to skate. Whether they are punished by civil or criminal courts, I don’t know, but these failures will continue until those responsible are held accountable.

Late last month in Washington, DC, a pedestrian bridge suddenly gave way and fell on a major freeway during the lunch rush. The collapse trapped a truck carrying 500 pounds of diesel fuel. Miraculously, only half a dozen people were injured.

Then remember the 13 dead and 145 injured when a bridge in Minneapolis suddenly plunged into the Mississippi River in 2007. Faulty gussets were installed that simply could not withstand the weight of rush hour traffic and construction equipment on the span that day.

As interested parties in Florida try to figure out who is to blame for the condominium collapse, the rest of us might want to consider who should be held responsible for the next public works project that kills people. Is it the municipal leaders who have failed to find the necessary funds, or is it our partisan Congress that seems more interested in political positions than in our security?

Diane Dimond is a national columnist.

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