To help avoid another building disaster, such as the June 24 partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South residential condominium in Surfside, Florida legislators should establish statewide mandatory structural recertification inspections and whole-building safety inspections for most existing buildings of all types, modeled after those required by Miami-Dade County since 1975.
These are the main recommendations, released Oct. 28, of a coalition of building professionals called the Surfside Working Group, that have been sent to the state legislature. The group’s nine-pagereport, Florida Building Professionals Recommendations, has also been made available to the public, including building officials and jurisdictions.
该组织的负责人兼美国工程委员会的执行董事艾伦·道格拉斯（Allen Douglas）表示，检查的目的是在升级为建立失败之前确定问题，代表工程公司，佛罗里达州工程委员会（ACECF）代表个人工程师的佛罗里达工程协会（FES）。他补充说：“我们并不是要告诉人们如何维护建筑物。”
腐蚀性盐水环境
Unlike Miami-Dade, which already requires recertification of buildings that exceed 10 occupants or 2,000 sq ft 40 years after completion, the report recommends structural recertification when a building is only 20 years old, and again every seven years, if the building is located in a corrosive saltwater environment. For buildings a minimum of three miles from saltwater, the inspections would start when the building reached 30 years of age and again every decade.
“A lot of the recommendations we already have on our books in Miami-Dade County,” says Jaime Gascon, the county’s division director for the Board of Rules and Appeals and Code Administration.
他补充说，该县正在考虑将重新认证的初始时间段从40年减少到30年。但是，迈阿密戴德（Miami-Dade）辩论但拒绝了Surfside Group对不同时间段的不同时间段的建议。
Gascon说：“我们确定迈阿密戴德的所有地区同样容易受到盐水环境的影响，并决定不区分。”
这些建议是由20个人捐赠时间的人撰写的。除ACECF和FES外，作者还代表美国土木工程师学会，国际混凝土维修学院，佛罗里达州建筑官员协会和美国建筑师协会佛罗里达协会。
Recommendations 'Lack Sufficient Detail'
KCE结构工程师的创始人兼首席执行官Allyn Kilsheimer说，这些建议是有效的，但“缺乏足够的细节”，可以有效作为检查指南。基尔斯海默（Kilsheimer）说，这甚至适用于检查员的建议资格，他自6月25日以来一直是Surfside镇的结构专家，这是Champlain Towers South South失败的第二天。
For example, according to Kilsheimer, a structure with post-tensioned floors needs a licensed structural-engineer inspector experienced with post-tensioning, not just any structural engineer and "definitely not an architect."
Kilsheimer说，7月，Surfside镇发布了详细的建议，以进行重新认证检查，并建议加快沿海的Surfside建筑物的检查过程。methodology对于Surfside。
为新Constructio同行审查n
关于新结构，该报告建议全州同行评审确定结构设计中的缺陷。报告说：“佛罗里达州以及许多其他州内的几个地区都需要对一定规模的建筑物进行同行审查，但是在佛罗里达州全州范围内没有这种要求。”
结构检查,报告建议a visual inspection performed under the direction of a licensed professional engineer or a licensed architect with experience designing and inspecting structures. At minimum, the inspector should look at garages, pool decks, roof parapets, common areas, unconditioned spaces, accessible exterior areas of the structure—including at least one third of the balconies—and handrails.
If the inspector finds signs of structural distress, a more thorough inspection would be required by a licensed design professional with at least a decade of experience designing structures and five years inspecting structural components of similar building types. The inspection could involve destructive and nondestructive testing, as well as the services of other design disciplines, such as a geotechnical engineer.
这些深入的检查“可能是广泛的或必要的限制评估和修复结构的损坏部分。”报告说。
Paid For by the Owner
All inspections would be paid for by the building owners. They would need to be signed and sealed by the licensed professional and submitted, concurrently, to the local buildings department and the building owner. Currently, the Miami-Dade program does not require the licensed professional to submit the report concurrently to the authority having jurisdiction. Typically, the report is submitted by the building owner. But if any imminent danger is identified, the design professional has a duty to report that directly to the jurisdiction, says Gascon.
Douglas says visual inspections could cost $3,000 to $5,000 for a 100-unit building. For the larger buildings, inspections could cost $15,000 or more. The cost of the more in-depth inspections would depend on the problems uncovered, he says.
The whole-building inspections would focus on electrical systems, fire protection systems and exterior envelopes. The current Miami-Dade Building Recertification program, in existence since 1975, includes assessments of the structure, electrical service, emergency lighting and the integrity of roofing and windows.
Existing Building Guide
The International Code Council (ICC), in coordination with the Florida Building Commission, is currently finalizing the Existing Building Safety Inspection Guide under a program called Ensuring the Safety of Existing Buildings. The guide addresses periodic and milestone assessments of building structures, envelopes and electrical and fire protection systems.
Surfside小组建议在全州范围内采用ICC指南，以确保整体建筑安全。该报告称，佛罗里达建筑法规第17章将需要进行其他更改，以便佛罗里达州采用该计划。
ICC expects to develop a national version of the guide for publication early next summer, says Mike Pfeiffer, ICC’s senior vice president for technical services. Following that, ICC expects to publish a national standard.
“There’s a high degree of interest” in the subject of existing-building inspection and maintenance, especially from the structural engineering community, says Pfeiffer.
