Surfside, FLA: An engineer hired to help find out why the South Florida condo collapsed last month was a warning official that the site was still unsafe.
The structural engineer Allyn Kilsheimer told Surfside and Miami-Dade officials in the letter Thursday that Collins Avenue could be destroyed because the remaining perimeter wall near the road could fail.
This development was first reported Friday by Miami Herald and WPLG.
“We believe there are potentially dangerous situations at the location, where the wall is in danger of collapse,” Kilsheimer wrote.
All that remains from the Champlain building is an underground parking garage wall, around the foundation of holes and kilsheimer says that without more support for the wall, the nearest traffic can make them collapse, with parts of the road falling into the emptiness.
“If the wall collapses or rotates substantially, the land maintained under the road and sidewalk can move with it,” Kilsheimer wrote, from the KCE structural engineer.
He recommends building a land title to support the wall near the road and sidewalk.
If not, the movement “can cause road parts collapse and can seriously compromise the utility under the road,” he wrote.
Miami-Dade County brought the crew to help support the remaining underground walls, Rachel Johnson, district communication director, told Herald.
“We moved to buy a company to do shoring and strengthen the wall to ensure no risk,” he said.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology, federal institutions that investigate the collapse, have monitored the safety of the site.
Collins Avenue, which is the main main road on Barrier Island, has been closed for traffic near the location since June 24, when the building partly collapsed, killed at least 97 people.
City officials said Collins Avenue will soon be opened.
In the letter, Kilsheimer said heavy rain would increase the risk substantially because the soil became saturated with water.