‘Frustrating’: Miami Litigators React as Courthouse Closed Indefinitely Amid Safety Concerns

By Melea VanOstrand

July 12, 2021

All judges and court staff based at the Miami-Dade County Courthouse are back to working remotely until further notice after an engineer’s report identified safety concerns on various floors of the 28-story historic building.

It’s a development that’s thrown the court’s reopening process into limbo and added to mounting concerns over the safety of Miami high-rises, as the review was prompted by the partial collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside on June 24.

The June 30 inspection, by South Florida general contracting and engineering firm U.S. Structures Inc., uncovered visible signs of concrete spalling and cracks in some of the overhead beams and slabs, corrosion at steel column members and a water leak seeping through an existing beam on the third floor.

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