A recent engineering report on a 46-year-old condominium building in Clearwater found no significant structural problems before cracks were found in a concrete support column this week, according to local news reports.
The Tampa Bay Times and other news sites reported that Karins Engineering firm conducted a milestone inspection in September – in keeping with a 2022 state law that requires inspections after 30 years – and found the building to be in good condition.
The South Beach III condo site on Sand Key, built in the 1970s, was undergoing repairs to a concrete slab in the bottom level of the parking garage Tuesday when workers discovered major cracks and voids in a support column. Earlier reports had suggested it was a horizontal support beam.
Preliminary investigations have suggested that support columns failed in the lower level of the Champlain Towers South condominium building in Surfside, Florida, in 2021, leading to a shocking collapse that killed 98 people. The tragedy led Florida lawmakers to approved strict rules in 2022 requiring regular inspections of most condo buildings in the state and adequate reserve funding for repairs.
At the Clearwater site, the building was evacuated Tuesday evening. The city issued a permit for temporary shoring up of the cracked support structures, and it’s unclear when residents will be allowed to return, the Times reported.
The Sand Key building was previously inspected in 2021 and an extensive restoration was completed in May 2024. But after that, reports indicated that the lower level parking garage was flooded in Hurricane Milton in October, potentially causing the slab and support structures to deteriorate.
A Clearwater city official said the residence’s inspection, like dozens of others in the city and across the state, had not been filed by the end of the year, WTSP TV news reported. Those types of delays, and the expense to condo unit owners, led the Legislature to revise parts of the 2022 laws last week.
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