Fort Lauderdale questions experts on design flaw in new police station

Yahoo

19-02-2025

Fort Lauderdale's new $145 million police headquarters is nearly complete and on track to open this fall despite a design flaw discovered last year, experts told commissioners this week.
In March, nearly a year ago, hairline cracks began forming along the entire length of a support beam on the top floor. A roof slab on the three-story building's northwest corner was bending, causing cracks in the concrete.
Fort Lauderdale hired outside experts to help oversee the fix.
On Tuesday, commissioners questioned whether the building would be safe over the long term. The engineering experts assured them it would.
Mayor Dean Trantalis asked how such a flaw could happen in today's day and age.
'Let me tell you something,' he said. 'We've all traveled around this country and around the world. And this design is not rocket science. This has been used over and over again. The Romans used it. They don't have deflection issues. How do we have a deflection issue in the year 2025?'
The short answer: Human error.
These are the details that came to light in mid-2024, after the commission was informed that cracks had formed in the concrete.
The original design of the headquarters building called for steel. That was later changed to poured concrete with panels.
According to Thornton Tomasetti, the project's engineering firm of record, the weight of the precast panels was not factored into the structural analysis model.
AECOM, the project's design firm, quickly accepted blame for the design flaw.
The firm has agreed to keep monitoring the building over the next five years and to cover the cost of any current and future fixes.
'This is a mistake that we are fully committed to rectifying,' said David Didier, chief operating officer for AECOM's East Region. 'We are going to take full responsibility for paying the cost of the fix. If something else comes up, we're not going anywhere. We're going to continue to monitor the building for five years. We're not going anywhere. We're going to stand by that building.'
Commissioner John Herbst said he'd like to see AECOM agree to monitor the building beyond five years.
'We've got a 30-year bond on this building,' Herbst said.
The city's taxpayers will be footing the bill for the building over the next 30 years, Herbst noted.
'I expect our partners who designed it and constructed it to stand behind the quality of their work,' he said. 'The risk of the quality of the work should fall on (them), not on the city and not on the taxpayer.'
The project didn't break ground until June 2023, four years after voters approved a $100 million bond. By then, the price had ballooned from $100 million to $145 million due to rising labor and construction costs. The total price is now approaching $150 million, partly because of the bending roof slab.
On Tuesday, Herbst also wanted to know whether the new police station would be free of leaks.
'One of the biggest problems we had with the old building is that it leaked like a sieve,' he said. 'We had folks with substantial allergic reactions, health issues, workers comp claims — all due to the mold in the building. We're trying to replace a sick building and I don't want to replace a sick building with another very expensive, brand-new sick building.'
In addition, Herbst said he was worried the building might suffer a catastrophic failure down the line.
Didier, of AECOM, assured him it would not.
'Strength-wise, the building is strong enough, so we're not going to see a catastrophic failure,' he said. 'With the repairs that have been proposed, we are going to make sure it doesn't deflect beyond the anticipated amount. And we're going to continue to monitor it. And we're going to make sure the windows are installed properly. And they're not going to leak.'
Susannah Bryan can be reached at [e-mail]. Follow me on X @Susannah_Bryan