![]() Moehle noted the team is also looking at failures that could have initiated within the tower, as some columns were “very heavily” loaded. And so it’s highly suspect that a failure initiation due to punching could have happened there.”Ī diagram prepared by investigators shows areas of the pool deck slab where slab-column connections were not up to code. “It has design deficiencies and construction efforts, it was heavily stressed and showed signs of deterioration. Those factors may have left an area of the pool deck particularly susceptible to punching shear failures, said Jack Moehle, one of the investigation project leaders. Investigators are testing specimens to explore how the corrosion of those hooked bars relate to the horizontal top bars in the slab and how corrosion may have damaged surrounding concrete and reinforcing bars. It has four hooked reinforcing bars sticking out the top, which show a marked degree of corrosion, Bell said. Investigators also highlighted one of the columns that had supported the pool deck slab. Bell said steel in the pool deck exhibited varying degrees of corrosion. “It’s quite deep in some places, not so deep in others.”ĭeterioration is the final factor that investigators are exploring in the pool deck’s safety margins. “The added fill and paving is really quite variable over the project,” Bell said. layer of pavers and sand plus a layer of waterproofing that had been added on top of the existing tile and mortar. An exploratory core taken during the building’s 40-year recertification inspections show a 1.25-in. A structure specialist shot photos during search and rescue operations showing a 9-in. Investigators also discovered additional fill and paving had been added to the pool deck during renovations that added weight to the pool deck slab. Photos from just days before the collapse published in a Miami Herald article last year show cracks and other distress around other planters that had been added on the west side of the pool deck, while photos from 14 months earlier show no distress there.Ī diagram, which is not to scale, shows structural distress spotted in photos from before the collapse. The trees were removed at some point between 20, but the planters remained. The weight of the trees, combined with the action of wind blowing them, may have damaged the slabs over the time that they were there, according to Bell. While not featured in the original design, the planters at one time contained palm trees that approached three stories tall, photos show. ![]() Heavy planters were also added to the north side of the pool deck, further reducing margins of failure in the slab, he said. “In the pool deck, that displacement in the original structure significantly reduces the margin of safety, particularly in the punching shear areas.” “The placement of this top reinforcement in a flat plate structure is really critical,” Bell said. Investigators found steel reinforcement in the pool deck slab had not been placed as designed.
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