I don’t see the issue. The city sends a notice; the owner engages an architect/engineer; the engineer inspects the building using guidelines from Miami Dade county; if the inspection is not done in time or if the results don’t meet M-D guidelines the BO can declare it to be unsafe and pass it to the M-D County Unsafe Structures Board. I would bet there would be a huge percentage of referrals to the county.
I'm having a hard time picturing what that rebar was doing. I initially thought it supporters the deck but then the overall view shows that it wasn't. They certainly didn't pop out of that column and I'm sure the column have much more rebar in it than that based on some of the drawings we've seen elsewhere.
The columns look to be intact at 72/73. I think that rebar is just pulled out from the parking slab that dropped four or five feet leaving the rebar looking like it is part of the column.
I may be able to shed some light on this process. First, this program has been in place since the 70's in Miami -Dade and since 2005 in Broward County. There is no shortage of large, experienced engineering firms that provide this recertification process. Even without the recertification requirement, most buildings understand they require concrete restoration on a regular basis. The initial findings give a base price and it typically grows in cost and complexity as the project starts and more is uncovered. It is not uncommon to see a $1.2M bid to begin restoration and a G701 form at the end with a cost of $3.6M. In one case the condition of the building was significantly worse as they started peeling back the layers and the restoration that started at $850K based on initial findings ended up at $9M when it was discovered that all of the railings had to be replaced along with most of the glazing.
Is it possible that the rebar from the column's attached to the floor slabs by tie wires? (guessing here) is not an adequate way to connect the slab to the post if they can pull away like this. The rebar looks like they have been stripped clean by the slab drop.
Good observation on the punch through. Column size and spacing seems light for 12 stories?
How did I miss that one?
So if I were to speculate based on news reports which included interviews and photographs, I would concur. Column failures in the garage near and/or below the building. Years of neglect and salt water intrusion. Again, this is speculation and we know it will be months before a report is released.
