County leaders said they still can’t pinpoint what caused cracks in Broward’s fairly new courthouse building, but engineers are working “around the clock” to figure it out.
Officials also justified their decision not to clear out all of Broward’s courthouse even as the top four floors were evacuated.
“If you evacuate four floors because of what was happening at the rooftop or beams, and you didn’t have all of the information to say it was imminent, grave… how [do] you keep all those other floors in the building?” asked County Commissioner Robert McKinzie.
Layers of slab concrete protect the lower floors, experts said Tuesday.
The damage discovered by a facilities maintenance employee late Thursday shut down the Courthouse’s West Tower top four floors, the 18th through the 21st.
“There is a sense of confidence there is not a danger,” Broward Public Works Director Trevor Fisher told county commissioners Tuesday. “If we felt there was a danger we would have taken more stringent actions to protect them.”
Still, he said that when the cracks in beams were discovered late Thursday “all hell broke loose.”
Photographs of damage were sent to building designers who were initially alarmed at what they saw, he said. But they later learned their first impressions from those photos were deceiving because of dust and dirt, and when they were able to reach the beams they “found out the cracks were not as wide as they thought initially.”
Scaffolds are still being put in place to allow access 30 feet to the top for further examination. “We have been pursing that over the weekend,” Fisher said. Six engineers are on site.
By Wednesday, engineers are expected to have gained full access to the beams, he said.
Ground penetrating radar, also known as GPR, will be conducted on the beams to ensure that the reinforcing steel is intact, officials said.
The X-ray of the concrete beams will allow investigators to see if the “structure was built the way it was intended,” Fisher said. In only “seven years I would not have expected to see those characteristics.”
The penetrating X-ray could help determine “what caused it and how to remedy it.”
As the commissioners questioned Fisher, the issue about potential liability arose.
Commissioner Mark Bogen asked about the warranty. And Commissioner Steve Geller, who said a new building “normally shouldn’t be falling apart,” asked the state’s “statute of repose,” which is the deadline to file legal claims regarding property.
Andrew Meyers, the county’s attorney, said it is “probably a latent defect” — which gives them a 10-year runway.
“There is absolutely the possibility of a lawsuit,” Geller said after the meeting. “First we have to determine there is a substantial defect. Then we have to determine whose fault it is.”
“If there is a serious problem, we don’t yet who caused it,” he added. “But we still have three years to sue somebody.”
The building, which is the courthouse’s west tower, opened with much fanfare in 2017 at a cost of $167 million.
Lisa J. Huriash can be reached at lhuriash@sunsentinel.com. Follow on Twitter @LisaHuriash
