Concerns have been raised over the safety of some UK buildings following the fatal collapse of a Miami apartment last year.

The 12-story Champlain Towers South apartment building collapsed on 24 June, killing 98 people and injuring many more. 

A contributor to the latest CROSS-UK newsletter has now said they are "concerned about the robustness of several two-storey buildings with which their design team were involved in the early 2000s".

While an internal review resulted in remedial work to a number of the buildings, according to the newsletter, the Miami collapse "has reawakened the correspondent’s recurring concerns as to whether they had not done enough at the time".

The sites in question have not been named as safety failings and concerns flagged to CROSS-UK are intentionally kept anonymous.

The newsletter says: "It was a stressful time with a high workload and there was pressure on the design team, some of whose members were inexperienced.

"The structures generally had masonry support walls and precast floors. The architects kept pushing for thin walls, small support piers, and short or no buttressing returns. There was resistance to using steelwork over its cost.

"Furthermore, the architects sometimes specified floor insulation between the precast floor and the screed. This negated any membrane action the floor topping/screed could have provided."

Going forward, the correspondent said emphasis should be placed on not succumbing to cost and time pressures, having a very thorough checking regime and not always trusting people to follow instructions.

In response to the concerns, CROSS-UK's expert panel said: "It is reassuring to see that an internal review led to building modifications and it is hoped that this, and subsequent actions, addressed the reporter's concerns and that they are simply reporting to raise the issue so others don't have similar problems.

"It was good to see that the potential risks had been identified and an internal review had been instigated. However, it should never have been allowed to get to the point where members of the organisation were so worried about the safety of a project."

CROSS-UK has also summarised the key learning outcomes for owners, architects, designers and engineers (below).

In March, Florida lawmakers failed to pass a bill to improve the safety of ageing buildings after the apartment collapse. The Florida Senate and House of Representatives have been trying to agree a bill that would require inspections of aging apartment buildings and commit boards to conduct studies to determine what money should be set aside for repairs.

However, according to NBC News, negotiations broke down due to a disagreement over how much funding flexibility to give condo owners.

In January it was announced that the trial into the collapse has been delayed until March 2023.

The investigation into the collapse is proving to be a lengthy process, with investigators last year ruling out the possibility of a sinkhole.

Other possible explanations have included issues with the ground floor pool deck area, ground movement from nearby construction work, salt impact on the building and structural issues.

Consultant Morabito inspected the building in 2018 in preparation for the 40-year recertification of its structural integrity and has since been accused of inadequate inspection and oversight.

Issues with the pool deck area were highlighted in Morabito's 2018 engineering report, which revealed that the building had “major structural damage” and needed to be extensively repaired.

The report adds that there was “abundant cracking and spalling” of concrete columns, beams and walls in the parking garage.

It adds that the waterproofing under the ground floor pool deck had also failed and had been improperly laid flat instead of sloped, preventing water from draining off.

According to Law360, Morabito conducted another inspection in 2020, which resulted in an October 2020 memorandum that indicated that the concrete around the pool and in other places at the condominium had significant deterioration.

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Tagged with: Building safety Champlain Towers

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