Page 43 - Slab News Today

Everything exactly the way the drawings call for, they dont always design everything exactly correct, but you look at and see which of those things may or may not have contributed. >> kit, the engineering firm that was hired to do a structural analysis at the building, did some exploratory demolition, its called, basically drilled down in a few areas to see the depths in the concrete structural slab in different areas. they said they found some curious results as it pertained to the structural s...

Are trying to predict of how the building will failure. so, as an engineer, you are going to be looking at the weak points and making sure the building will collapse in on itself. dealing with damaged buildings, theres unknowns in damaged buildings. now you have a building that is more unpredictable. its more risky to demolish already damaged or partially collapsed building. >> how do engineers ensure the of all structural integrity of nearby buildings remain in-tact and also make sure in this i...

Lets go. >> they made it to the garage but still werent out of danger. the garage ceiling collapsed and water was ankle deep. >> there was one car pancaked on top of another car pancaked on top of a huge slab of concrete. >> reporter: after that he put esther over his shoulder once again and carried her to safety on the beach. >> what do you think about somebody who would do that? >> i think somebody else when i think something -- you know, you need to help each other in bad times too. remember,...

Until the engineers have had a chance to examine all the debris and to go through the analysis of how the building was designed. but the indication is that in the intersection between the plaza, thats the pool plaza and the building that was serious deterioration of the concrete, perhaps the slab and also of the columns supporting the building itself. those two things combined would have led to a local collapse that could bring the whole building down. >> it seems like there were at least a coup...

Collapse one potential mode of failure is so-called punching failure. in which the slab punches through the columns and potentially progress from there. the other thing that we know about the building is that in the pool area, the pool deck, the 2018 report identified some damage that were in need of repairs. we also know in addition to what -- >> professor, can i cut you off for a second? i just want to get your take on the sequencing because i think its important and new. if the pool and garag...

First, though, cnn senior investigative correspondent drew griffin with the very latest on what we know tonight. >> reporter: as more lawsuits are being filed across south florida in the deadly collapse of the champlain towers south condominium, there is more evidence residents, engineers and the condo board knew their building was deteriorating. a letter e-mailed on april 9, just three months ago, from the skond minutium association board president, warned the observable damage such as in the g...

They had this report, they had a report, it said very clearly your building is in bad shape. it said very clearly you have significant deterioration of the concrete, of the structure, of the slap. -- slab. it didnt say run for your lives, and maybe it should have said run for your lives. but it didnt, and the residents, maybe they didnt want to spend the money, maybe it took a while to get their act together. there wasnt a sense of urgency, and we need to find out why that sense of urgency wasnt...

Potentially where there are additional issues in the building and where it is that potentially there could be a failure of where the horizontal slab can leave the vertical column. the home owners association, they received this report. all home owners association really are going to be revamped these days because you need to have an engineer in-house and engineer on the team that will make you aware of the potential ramifications and issues if you do not maintain and take care of these liabiliti...

Down? >> the clue it offers is that the engineer should have been given access to check the interior of the building, the slab, which he never had access, for some reason. it showed that deterioration was going on. but he did not check the main towers and check the slab/column connections. this building is a flat slab construction. so punch and shear, where the column punches through the slab, thats a common failure for these types of structures. if he had been given access to check those column...

Check those column connections to the slab, we would have known whether those were badly deteriorated and whether punch and shear was going to be an imminent failure mechanism for this structure because the tower that came down, came down on itself. >> mm-hmm. >> its almost like a controlled demolition. you know, there are several ways that can happen. the column could have failed. punch and shear could have happened. the foundation could have given way. we also need to check the original design...