Aging buildings do not deteriorate on a schedule. Inspection programs assume they do.
That’s the argument Greg Batista, a Fort Lauderdale structural engineer with 35 years in concrete restoration and corrosion mitigation, has been making since the fifth anniversary of the Champlain Towers South collapse passed in June. The reforms Florida enacted after Surfside were necessary. They were also, by design, periodic.
What milestone inspections can and can’t see
Florida’s milestone inspection requirement and its structural integrity reserve studies both represent real progress. They force professional evaluation and long-term financial planning for structural repair, which is more than most states require of anybody.
They also capture a moment. “Corrosion, cracking and deflection often begin internally,” Batista wrote. “These processes can advance for months or years without visible signs.” By the time damage reaches a surface an inspector can photograph, the repair scope has usually grown by an order of magnitude.
Between cycles, owners and engineers are effectively blind. That is not a criticism of the inspectors. It is a structural limitation of the method.
The case for continuous monitoring
Strain gauges, tilt sensors, crack meters, and corrosion-rate probes are not exotic. They have been standard on bridges and dams for decades, and the instrumentation cost has fallen far enough that a condo association can now afford what a state DOT once budgeted for.
Batista’s prediction is that continuous monitoring becomes a standard of care, not a premium option. Codes evolve toward what the technology makes affordable, and liability follows shortly after. Once monitoring is cheap and available, the engineer who didn’t recommend it has a harder conversation with a jury.
Why this isn’t an abstract debate
Two weeks ago, columns buckled on an occupied office-to-residential conversion at 235 East 42nd Street in Manhattan, forcing evacuations and emergency shoring. The building was under active construction with engineers on site. It still surprised everyone.
Structural failure rarely announces itself. It accumulates. The industry has spent five years building better inspection paperwork, and paperwork is not instrumentation. Owners of 1960s and 1970s concrete — the exact vintage now hitting the end of its uninstrumented service life — should be asking what they know about their buildings on the 364 days a year nobody is looking.