Page 44 - Slab News Today

Deck and cracking and crumbling of the columns, beams, walls of the parking garage. professor, when you hear that, does this offer clues as to why this building came down? >> the clue it offers is that the engineers should have been given access to check the interior of the building, the slab to column connections, which he never had that 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...

This property which found major structural damage and abundant cracking and spalling of the concrete. this is a term some people refer to as concrete cancer. it happens a lot in human environments and salty environments. and theres a lot of concern about it. beyond that, there was concern about water seals on the building. the failed waterproofing is causing major structural damage to the concrete structural slab below these areas. failure to replace the waterproofing in the near future will cau...

Fear mode. it punches through the slab. that needed to be checked to make sure it was ruled out. some of the things that i learned from this, again, like i said, is to maintain our structures in a timely manner, and also to make sure that structures that are on the coast like this, that are exposed to saltwater, are inspected, not every 40 years, but inspected sooner than that. maybe 10 to 15 years. the coats are changing. this critical structure had what we call structural integrity reinforceme...

Significant cracks and breaks in the buildings concrete. more from cnns tom foreman. tom? >> reporter: hey, don. all eyes are focused on this 2018 inspection and report about this property, which found major structural damage and abundant cracking and spauling of the concrete. this is a term that some people refer to as concrete cancer. it happens a lot in human environments and salty environments and theres a lot of concern about it. beyond that, there is concern about water seals on the buildi...

Acceleration of the process. >> so if those photos are correct, what is your suspicion, and it is just a suspicion, it will take a lot more work to determine, what is your suspicion about what caused the building to collapse? >> well my opinion is that the pictures that i saw in 2018 didnt give me that much concern. and even the engineers statement that there was major structural damage, it was to a slab. now major structural damage to a beam for a column, that then escalates to concern. so thes...

Cracked concrete in the beams underneath the pool, and all of that is signs of some sort of water intrusion, major damage. experts we talked to said that was very serious, and if that kind of damage existed under the weight of the building itself, that could have been a reason for the collapse. >> and thats to be clear, what your reporting is what he saw, the worst of it wasnt under the area that collapsed but what is not known is if it was also under that area. >> thats right, and what we under...

About water and the deterioration of the concrete and the structure. it is very concerning to me to see those pictures. >> the miami dade mayor says a building audit has uncovered serious issues. does the process of inspecting buildings along the south florida coast, for example, need to change? >> yeah. thats a great question. and let me just go back a second and say that the pool structure is intact. i am most concerned with the reports of the membrane that was found under the pool deck. i thi...

Draining of water, so water was ponding. it would have to evaporate into the air. let me go ahead and read you a portion of this report, because it really is going to give you an idea of what were talking about here. the waterproofing below the pool deck and entrance drive as well as all of the planter waterproofing is beyond its useful life and therefore must all be completely removed and replaced. the failed waterproofing is causing major structural damage to the concrete structural slab below...

Sometimes that is just basically a crack where the slab fails with a crack where you have an underlying piece of steel thats corroding. if you have that kind of issue, which in our -- in our engineering lin go is called a spawl. when you have underlying corrosion with the steel rebar and you eject this epoxy in there, theres no way that the injection is going to repair the underlying corrosion. so that, along with a confluence of many other issues could be at stake here. >> so is there a way of ...

Matice levy joins me. thank you for being with me. >> thank you. >> you were on cnn this weekend with my colleague, michael smerconish and raised real concerns about the slab, basically, underneath the pool deck that continues on. that was your initial concern. now, seeing what you have seen from this 2018 report, how many questions does that add to you about that part of the structure? >> two thing. one is the video of the collapse itself, which is clear that the collapse started at the bottom....