Residents allowed to return to evacuated Miami Beach condo after temporary fix

Residents were allowed to return to the Port Royale condo tower in Miami Beach on Monday after equipment was installed to secure damaged concrete beams that had prompted an evacuation of the building late last month.

“We are pleased to inform you that general occupancy may return to Port Royale Condominium,” the condo board wrote in an email to residents shortly after 10 a.m. “WELCOME HOME!!”

The city of Miami Beach removed an unsafe structure notice from the building’s front entrance after receiving an engineer’s letter Friday and inspecting the building Saturday, according to city spokesperson Melissa Berthier.

“Port Royale has shored the building as required and residents are allowed to move back into the property,” Berthier said.

Berthier said there are no written reports from the city’s inspection.

Substantial damage observed

The city ordered residents of the 14-story, 164-unit oceanfront tower at 6969 Collins Ave. to evacuate immediately on Oct. 27 after Inspection Engineers observed substantial damage to a beam in the mezzanine-level garage that “might support the entire building structure.”

Residents were given approximately two hours to gather their belongings and leave. Under a Miami Beach ordinance that recently took effect, condo owners were required to cover moving and relocation costs for displaced renters. The city covered hotel costs for at least four tenants whose landlords were either refusing to pay or couldn’t be reached, according to Berthier.

The condo board hired a contractor, Brian Calderone of Fort Lauderdale-based engineering firm WJE, to recommend a “shoring” plan to reinforce the damaged beams. Calderone opined that the beams in question were supporting the building’s fourth floor, but not the entire structure as Inspection Engineers had originally suggested.

“Since the beam shoring has been installed, the structural condition of the subject beams are such that the building can be reoccupied,” Calderone wrote Friday in a letter to Miami Beach Building official Ana Salgueiro.

The letter notes that WJE only assessed the damaged beams and that any other structural concerns in the building are the responsibility of Inspection Engineers, which is overseeing repairs as part of a 50-year recertification.

Water in the building was reconnected Sunday but gas had not yet been turned on as of Monday morning, meaning there was no hot water, according to the condo board’s email. City officials had ordered utilities to be disconnected after the evacuation.

In a letter to the condo board late last month, Inspection Engineers said it had observed “continuous deterioration” of a “main beam” that supports the 51-year-old structure.

The firm said it found approximately half an inch of “deflection,” or movement, from the original position of a beam that had already been identified as needing repairs. In addition, an existing crack in the beam had expanded.

Engineers noticed the damage while they were overseeing repairs to the garage that began in September.

In a Nov. 3 report to the condo board, Calderone wrote that he did not believe the movement in the beam had occurred recently. He said the cracking seemed to be evidence of a “past structural load” that had exceeded the beam’s capacity.

“WJE did not identify conditions on the beam that would be consistent with an imminent structural collapse,” Calderone wrote.

After the shoring is installed, Calderone added, his firm will “perform a more in-depth analysis” to determine the root cause of the problem and recommend long-term repairs.

Burst pipe incidents related?

Abieyuwa Aghayere, a Drexel University engineering researcher who reviewed photos and documents related to the Port Royale building, said diagonal cracks seen in the mezzanine-level beams were “concerning.”

“It’s relieving to know that those beams have been shored [all the way down to the basement slab] at those crack locations and repairs will be carried out,” Aghayere said in an email. “Nevertheless, a thorough analysis of those beams has to be carried out to determine why those shear cracks occurred in the first place.”

The installation of the shoring posts has blocked off parking spaces for residents in the lobby and basement levels, the condo board said in its email.

In the weeks leading up to the evacuation, a series of pipes in the building burst, according to videos and images obtained by the Miami Herald. The issues included pipes in both the lobby-level garage and an upper floor of the building bursting on the same day in mid-September, as well as a pipe bursting that flooded the mezzanine-level garage in early October.

A representative for Inspection Engineers did not respond to an inquiry about the significance of the pipes bursting. Calderone, the shoring expert, also declined to comment on the matter.

The condo board and a building manager could not be reached for comment.

Aghayere, the Drexel University researcher, said there are various reasons why pipes might burst, but deflection of structural supports could potentially play a role. Measurements at the site and a structural analysis of the building would be required to know for sure, he said.

The October evacuation followed an earlier safety scare at the building last July that also required shoring installation in the garage just weeks after the Champlain Towers South collapse in Surfside that killed 98 people a mile to the north.

As local building departments across South Florida were scrambling to evaluate the structural integrity of large buildings — and especially beachfront condos — Port Royale received an unsafe structure notice from the city that pointed to structural deterioration and concrete spalling. Shoring was installed and residents were allowed to stay.

This story was updated on Tuesday, Nov. 15, to reflect a statement from the city of Miami Beach that there were no written reports on the inspection of the shoring completed at Port Royale Condominium.