The 2021 Champlain Towers collapse was not because of the building sinking but because it had fallen into disrepair.
The Porsche Design Tower in Miami, built in 2014, is one of 35 luxury beachfront properties along the coast that a recent University of Miami study has found to have sunk by up to three inches into the unstable sandy earth…
The collapse of a 12-story apartment building nearby in 2021, which killed 98 people, caused geologists to keep a close eye on the buildings in the area. They haven’t yet raised any alarms about the sinking buildings, but warn that continued sinking at these rates could mean long-term danger.
" The Porsche Design Tower in Miami, built in 2014, is one of 35 luxury beachfront properties along the coast that a recent University of Miami study has found to have sunk by up to three inches into the unstable sandy earth…"
I’m no expert on building structures, but if I lived in a SFH, let alone a Tower, I’d be getting very, very nervous about the 3 inches of sinking/settlement that’s occurred. All structures are going to move a little, but 3 inches would seem to put a lot of stress on mechanical connections that hold these Towers together. Bolts will shear/break off. Not good.
And with ocean water penetrating farther from the actual shoreline, into the limestone subsurface, I think I’d be looking to get out of Dodge before everybody else comes to the same conclusion.
You don’t believe in climate change, right ?
The rising sea levels pushing ocean water underneath the
limestone substructure that these Towers sit atop, that’s
not climate change related in your opinion ?
Not trying to be snarky, just curious about that.
I live a long, long way from Miami, so the leaders and statesmen of Florida can reach out to MC on their own.
Sounds like they’d be wise to do so.
And while I live far away, home insurance prices keep rising here as well. It’s almost like we’re all interconnected, lol /sarcasm. And future tariffs on Canadian imports ( think lumber ) are going to cause insurance rates to go higher. Same goes for any other products or raw material that are imported. Costs more to rebuild after a structure collapses.
The rest of the Country is subsidizing these high risk areas.
So I’d like to see them come up with some rational processes to deal with the issues that are arising ( pun intended )
The incoming regime wants to use deregulation as a driving force to spur the economy. I wonder if deregulation will make it’s way into the building codes that are implemented in high risk areas ? Sure would save some money in the short term /sarcasm.
No, climate change is real. It is just that I am not a catastrophist. If you’re interested we can go into some details.
As for the Miami study (linked below) it says nothing about climate change. Rather, the subsidence has been caused by construction disturbances. The subsidence slows over time (eight years with exponential decay).
From the abstract:
“…the subsidence is related to construction activities. In northern and central Sunny Isles Beach, where 23% of coastal structures were built during the last decade, nearly 70% are experiencing subsidence. The majority of the older subsiding structures show sudden onset or sudden acceleration of subsidence, suggesting that this is due to construction activities in their vicinity”
While most of the geology is limestone, there are a few layers of sand in the region. The vibrations that occurred during construction induced deformations in the sand layers.
“We attribute the observed subsidence to load-induced, prolonged creep deformation of the sandy layers within the limestone, which is accelerated, if not instigated, by construction activities.”
The authors write that South Florida high-rises “are designed to undergo several tens of centimeters of settlement”
The authors note that freshwater is an issue, “the injection of stormwater into the subsurface, which is practiced at most high-rises for flood management.”
Doesn’t the study also say that anthropogenic and natural groundwater changes may also be contributing to the subsidence? And further down don’t they talk about construction contributing to OR accelerating the subsidence?
Yes. The anthropogenic groundwater changes are from the injection of stormwater into the subsurface.
There is some natural subsidence in different parts of Florida, but in this area the subsidence is due to disturbances from construction (which fades away after some eight years).
Houston is sinking at a rate of 1.95 centimeters per year, making it the 10th fastest sinking city in the world. However, some parts of Houston are sinking at a much faster rate of two inches per year.
The rate of sinking in New Orleans, also called subsidence, varies across the city, but on average it’s about 0.2 inches (5.6 mm) per year:
Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital city, is considered the world’s fastest-sinking city:
Rate of sinking: Jakarta sinks 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 cm) each year.
Causes: The sinking is due to excessive groundwater drainage and flooding
My comment that last line about groundwater…watchout for global warming and the water rising.