Investigators Say Faulty Pool Deck Likely Caused Deadly Surfside Collapse

Federal investigators say it is highly likely that structural issues in the pool deck caused the collapse of the Champlain Towers South that killed 98 people in Surfside, Florida, more than four years ago.

In a presentation released on Tuesday by the National Institute of Standards and Technology to the National Construction Safety Team Advisory Committee, investigators also announced that a final report will come almost a year after the original planned date of fall 2025.

Through analyzing a timeline of the site and building history, interviews, audio-visual data and building records, investigators found issues strongly pointing to the pool deck as the leading cause.

After NIST investigators identified it as a potential factor last year, the new report found that the pool collapsed at least seven minutes before the 137-unit condo tower — a three-minute difference from the original estimate of four minutes. 

“Recent work indicates that it is more likely that the failure started in a pool deck slab-column connection than we considered in June,” the report said.

Warning signs in the hours, days and weeks before the June 2021 collapse included a gate door becoming stuck, a horizontal crack in a planter, a sliding glass door coming off its frame and leaks in a parking garage ceiling — all in a small area of the building by the pool deck.

“The day before the collapse, water was seen leaking from the ceiling of the garage in an area that had been the site of many cracks and repairs over the years,” an NIST release states. “The flow of water dramatically increased in the hours before the collapse.”

NIST Engineer and Associate Lead Investigator Glenn Bell told the advisory committee that the investigation has been difficult due to problems in the design and construction of the building at 8777 Collins Ave., ABC News reported.

“Our team has worked tirelessly to find the causes of this disaster and we are on the home stretch, but much of the very hard work of bringing about change is still in front of us,” Bell said during the meeting, according to ABC.

There had been concerns about the building’s structural integrity leading up to its failure. 

In 2018, Morabito Consultants — which was ordered to pay $16M to the victims of the collapse in 2022 — had reported that Champlain Towers South had significant structural damage, including deteriorating concrete in the pool deck and signs of water penetration, Building Mavens reported. 

In the presentation, investigators said construction and design flaws in the pool deck may be partly to blame, citing “design understrength” and “deviations in construction from requirements” as well as added loads to the pool deck and material degradation as factors that led to “critically low margins of safety at the time of failure.”

NIST and NCST plan to provide a public update on the investigative findings in spring or early summer of next year. The investigators expect to finish drafting their reports for technical and policy review “several months” after the public update, the presentation said.

The collapse prompted sweeping changes to state laws regulating deferred maintenance at condo buildings. 

In 2022, the state passed Senate Bill 4-D, requiring condo associations at buildings more than 30 years old to conduct regular structural inspections and fully fund reserves for major repairs, which can cost millions of dollars.

Many condo associations have dragged their feet on the requirements despite a Dec. 31 deadline. The assessments have blown a hole in the sales market for units in older buildings, with values down more than 20% for buildings 30 years or older and nearly 20,000 on the market earlier this year.

Many structural engineers, essential to completing the required assessments, have backed off from condo work amid litigation and liability fears. 

In June, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law that provided an extra year to complete structural integrity reserve studies and allowed owners to use loans or lines of credit to contribute to the reserves — an attempt to alleviate financial stress caused by SB 4-D.

While investigators work to finish their reports, the site already has new plans for a luxury condo tower that is expected to deliver by 2029.

Dubai-based Damac Properties reached a deal to buy the waterfront site for $120M as the only bidder in a court-approved auction just three months after the collapse in October 2021. The deal was finalized in May 2022, with no other bidders expressing interest, The Real Deal reported at the time.

The developer’s international arm, Damac International, launched sales in January for The Delmore, a building with 37 “mansions in the sky,” priced starting at $15M. 

Damac Senior Vice President of Development Jeffery Rossely told Bisnow in an email in January that the remnants of the collapsed towers had been cleared and the site was being prepared to start construction.

Martin Langesfeld, a Miami real estate broker who lost his sister and her husband in the tragedy, said that the project shouldn't move forward while the federal investigation remains incomplete. Damac doesn't plan on including a memorial to the victims in The Delmore, and the town of Surfside's planned memorial at a park nearby has yet to start construction.

“We appreciate the site’s past and have approached this development with respect and sensitivity,” Rossely wrote at the time. “That said, we believe that what happened to the previously troubled structure has nothing to do with the future of the site and what we plan to develop.”