- The town of Surfside received a required 40-year inspection report for the Champlain Towers South 16 hours after the beachside building’s catastrophic failure.
- An October 2018 inspection report found “abundant” cracking and spalling of the columns, beams and walls in the garage under the tower that collapsed early Thursday.
Engineers noted design flaws and failing waterproofing that would lead to “exponential damage” about 990 days before much of the Champlain Towers South condominium complex collapsed, documents released late Friday night show. The town of Surfside, Fla., released the documents including an “unverified” 40-year inspection report that had been received 16 hours after the building’s catastrophic failure.
A letter to the condomimum association’s treasurer on Oct. 8, 2018, included pages of recommended repairs. One warned of failed waterproofing causing “major structural damage” on a concrete slab over a garage and said “Failure to replace the waterproofing in the near future will cause the extent of the concrete damage to expand exponentially.”
The author warned that the design was faulty, replacement would be complicated, and called it a “systemic issue.” Areas underneath planters and pools were specifically mentioned in the report. The pool remained largely intact after the collapse.
None of the documents, which date to 2018, appeared to contain details that would explain the beachside building’s collapse but do reveal multiple potentially serious issues.
