Surfside Town Commish: There Were Other Factors that Hugely Impacted Surfside Condo Collapse

EXCERPT:

SALZHAUER: “But there were other factors that also impacted this building. There was a huge construction of a large tower, 20 stories, right next door called 87 Park, that was in the city of Miami Beach. And when it was being built, the residents of this building, of Champlain South, complained, 'Our building is shaking, I’m seeing cracks from this construction. Can you do something about it?' And our town, unfortunately, it's not our territory. So we had people saying to them, 'What do you want us to do about it? It’s not our town.' Well, that’s not a satisfactory answer to me. The answer is you call up the city of Miami Beach and say, 'What’s going on over there?' And the city of Miami Beach needs to be held accountable for what they allowed to go on over there, because each one of these things will have an impact. And there was another factor. The Army Corps of Engineers did a beach renourishment project in our town and they trucked in thousands of tons of sand right on 88th Street, next to this building, over the course of a year, hundreds of trucks every day full of sand. Usually this is done by barge because of the weight of the sand, but they did it by truck. Did the weight of all of those trucks coming in day after day after day, did that contribute? So what I’m saying is, there is not going to be one person to say, 'Oh, gosh.'"