Florida looks at upgrading building codes

A number of sophisticated sensing techniques and tests — sonar, radar, handheld X-rays, salinity tests and magnetic imaging — can help engineers assess conditions beneath a concrete beam or inside a building. Florida doesn't require inspectors to use any of them.

There is no statewide requirement to test the integrity of concrete, waterproofing and reinforcing steel in foundations and subsurface conditions or to use a structural engineer to sign off on a building's plans. Any professional engineer can do it.

There is no routine inspection required after a building is built except in two counties. Broward and Miami-Dade require local officials to recertify that a building is safe after it receives its initial certification of occupancy. Recertification is required only after a building reaches 40 years old.

And Surfside in Miami-Dade County is where the 135-unit Champlain Towers South collapsed on June 24. The cause of the collapse is still undetermined and is the subject of lawsuits and investigations.

The death toll from the disaster in Surfside rose to 95 on Tuesday, with 14 people still unaccounted for, authorities said.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava acknowledged the "anguish'' of families awaiting the identification of their loved ones. "The process is methodical and careful, and it does take time," she said Monday.

"At this step of the recovery process, we must rely heavily on work of the medical examiner's office," Levine Cava said. "They're undertaking technical and scientific processes to identify the human remains."

Republican Governor Ron DeSantis last week said he wasn't ready to propose changes in state oversight of aging high-rise condominium buildings. He called such condominiums "a dime a dozen" and described the collapse of the 40-year-old oceanfront building as a "unique tragedy". He said Wednesday it remains unknown if the disaster will require extensive changes to issues such as building inspections or construction.

But some structural engineers and architects say the tragedy should serve as a catalyst to update Florida's dated building inspection laws — especially in coastal communities where rising water tables pose increasing threats.

Four engineering associations say they want to develop revised buildings code and inspection protocols before state lawmakers return to Tallahassee in January for their 2022 session.

"What we have right now is more questions than any answers," said Allen Douglas, executive director of the Florida Engineering Society and the American Council of Engineering Companies of Florida. "We want to do something, so let's take a look at the things that can be discussed at this point."

Members from those two trade groups, plus the Florida Structural Engineers Association and the American Society of Civil Engineers, held their first meeting this week.

So far, engineers are considering whether to recommend the state require recertifications for all tall buildings after a certain period of time. Other cities and counties are considering requiring similar reviews.

Tall buildings on the coast could require shorter timelines than ones not close to the water, Douglas said.

"Some of the people on [this week's] call, they see more deterioration in the buildings that sit on the water, that get the saltwater spray," Douglas said.

Separately, some engineers have suggested requiring the use of sophisticated sensing techniques and tests to help assess conditions inside a concrete beam or beneath a foundation.

The other issue they are looking to address is how condominium owners would be able to afford the inspections — and the cost of repairs. Inspections alone can cost from $5,000 to $200,000, depending on the inspection's scope and the building's size, and can result in recommendations of millions of dollars in repairs.

Residents of Champlain Towers flagged multiple signs of disrepair. The pool leaked down to the parking garage. As the building neared 40 years old, its condo association hired an engineering consultant, whose inspection in 2018 found rusting rebar and crumbling concrete that needed to be fixed. By this year, the cost of the needed repairs had ballooned to about $15 million.

"It gets down to, how do you pay for this?" Douglas said. "If you go to a statewide model, it's expensive on the condo associations. We don't want people to not pay their assessments and lose their homes."

There are other, practical concerns, such as who should be allowed to perform the inspections and how rigorous they should be. For example, some firms sample 20 percent of balconies during an inspection, while others insist on examining each one.

Douglas said engineers will likely start teaming up with similar interest groups, such as architects and contractors, to build consensus around potential recommendations.

Engineers also expect renewed debate this year about a special license for structural engineers, which would require them to pass a more rigorous test. While buildings are usually designed by architects, the role of the structural engineer is to make sure the building's design is structurally sound.

In 2015, the Legislature passed a bill creating such a license, but then-governor Rick Scott vetoed it over concerns about how it would apply to engineers who are currently licensed. This year, it didn't get a hearing in the House, having run up against a prevailing sentiment that the state shouldn't be creating new occupational licenses, according to Representative Jackie Toledo, a Tampa Republican who sponsored the bill and is the only professional engineer in the Legislature.

DeSantis and lawmakers have removed some occupational licenses in recent years, which they see as a barrier to entry for many jobs.

Since the Surfside tragedy, Toledo said she's already had conversations with DeSantis' staff and the House speaker's staff about bringing the bill up again when lawmakers start meeting in the fall.

"Surfside definitely made it a bigger concern," Toledo said.

State Senator Jason Pizzo, a Miami Democrat whose district includes Surfside, said he is working with engineers on updating Florida's law.

"The problem with our recertification process is it considers where a building is standing in a vacuum. It does not consider where it is located,'' he said. With its high-water table and vulnerability to sea level rise, the state needs to update its reinspection process to include more factors, especially for buildings close to the shoreline and flood zone, Pizzo said.

"You don't buy a raw piece of ground anymore without doing very simple soil borings to see if there's contamination,'' he said. "We should do the same thing with buildings."