Residents of a high-rise Miami Beach condominium located about a mile and a half down the road from the site of the deadly 2021 condo collapse in Surfside, Florida, were ordered to evacuate after the building’s structural engineer reported that a key support beam needed repairs.
The City of Miami Beach deemed the building, the Port Royale, unsafe and told residents to evacuate “immediately,” said spokesperson Melissa Berthier.
The condo owners had only a couple of hours to get out. They carried pets and loaded cars, local TV reports showed, faced with finding places to stay for at least 10 days.
Engineers inspecting the site as part of its 50-year recertification said they had discovered a growing crack and deflection in a main beam in the building’s garage, meaning the beam was bending or moving away from its intended position.
“We believe this beam and the other beams located in the third-floor garage might support the entire building structure,” an inspector and an engineer for Inspection Engineers wrote in a letter to the city dated Thursday, though they said that was based on observation because they don’t have the building’s original structural calculations.
It could take about 10 days to design and install shoring to address the issue, wrote the engineers, who said a shoring expert is working on calculations for the design, which must be submitted to the city for approval and permitting before work can begin. Once the shoring has been installed, engineers will evaluate whether it’s safe for residents to return to their homes.
City engineers also visited the building to inspect what the engineers had found in the garage and agreed residents needed to be evacuated, the letter said.
The 163-unit building was built in 1971, county property records show. Sitting on Collins Avenue, it’s down the road from the site where the 12-story Champlain Towers South condo building collapsed in June 2021, killing nearly 100 people.
Residents were warned by the condo board Wednesday that they might need to vacate, the Miami Herald reported, but were not ordered to evacuate until around 5 p.m. Thursday, when the board told them to be out by 7 p.m.
Photos in the engineers’ report showed damage and crumbling near the property line, water leaking into an active electrical gutter, and issues with columns.
Engineers first found issues in the garage about 10 months ago and marked various areas for repair, they said in the letter. The repairs began four weeks ago, and the problem with the beam was found in this week’s inspections.
(c) 2022, The Washington Post · Justine McDaniel
