INFRASTRUCTUREExtensive Review of Champlain Towers Collapse Completed

The National Construction Safety Team has reached an important milestone in its investigation into the 2021 partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside, Florida, with the transfer of evidence custody to the Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD). The transfer became possible once the team from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) completed its extensive review, measurement and testing of critical building evidence extracted from the collapse site. 

“Our team members were in Surfside within 48 hours of the partial collapse of Champlain Towers South, working in collaboration with the Miami-Dade Police Department and others to help ensure the identification and preservation of potential evidence that could explain the collapse,” said investigative lead Judith Mitrani-Reiser. “Since then, we have conducted extensive testing of concrete slabs, columns and reinforcing steel so that we could understand the condition of the building and the forces acting on it at the time of the tragedy.”

Immediately After the Partial Collapse
NIST staff members arrived in Surfside on June 25, 2021, and five days later NIST announced it would conduct an investigation under the National Construction Safety Team (NCST) Act, which gives NIST the authority to investigate building failures. The goals of these investigations are to establish the likely technical cause or causes of a building failure; recommend, as necessary, specific improvements to building standards, codes and practices; and recommend any research and other appropriate actions needed to improve the structural safety of buildings.

NIST’s investigations under the NCST Act are fact-finding efforts. NIST is not authorized to find fault, responsibility or negligence when investigating a building failure.

Taking care not to interfere with the search and rescue operations, NIST’s experts collaborated with the MDPD to develop guidance for first responders on which building elements would be important to set aside for a potential investigation into the technical cause of the collapse. Procedures for preserving this potential evidence were developed in cooperation with the Miami-Dade Homicide Bureau, the Miami-Dade Fire Department, structures specialists with the urban search and rescue task forces, and the many contractors working on the site. At the same time, remote sensing of the site helped local and federal experts determine where potential evidence was located.

“The collaboration, coordination and cooperation with everyone on site was key to ensuring we would have the evidence needed to understand what caused this tragedy,”