FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Human error is the cause for a miscalculation that stopped some construction on Fort Lauderdale’s new police headquarters, and city leaders heard details about it Tuesday.
Officials said a growing crack in the roof slab of the building isn’t a life safety issue, but may cause leaks, water or mold down the line.
Still, with a history of deadly structural failures in South Florida, you couldn’t overestimate the concern officials had when they met Tuesday.
“How this ever happened, I don’t understand,” Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis said.
According to a city memo, workers installing glass discovered the crack and the builders informed the city last March.
It was explained it wasn’t something that would cause a catastrophic failure structurally, but defection in the roofing might dislodge something at a later date and cause water infiltration,” Anthony Fajardo, Fort Lauderdale’s assistant city manager, said.
Engineers tell the city that someone miscalculated. There was a design flaw from the beginning, and the support structures can’t carry the weight of the cantilevered roof area above the third floor. The splitting concrete continues the entire length of the beam.
Voters approved a $100 million bond for the building in 2019. It took years to reach the groundbreaking.
And now work is stopped on the northwest corner. Additional columns have been added and inspections and design fixes are in the works.
Despite assurances, at least one commissioner questioned whether the whole project, already half done, should be scrapped.
“For the price we are paying for this building, I don’t want a patched-up job, and that’s what it sounds like to me,” Commissioner John Herbst said.
Despite Herbst’s comments receiving a round of applause from the audience, as of Tuesday, it doesn’t seem like there’s any appetite to do so from top officials.
Over the following week, Fajardo said the city’s team will get more input and information from more up-to-date studies and they’ll use that to guide their decision process for the future of this construction project.