Video: Complexity of investigation into Surfside condo collapse

As search and rescue teams from all over the world continue to work around the clock at the site of last week’s deadly collapse of a Surfside condominium, local government officials and investigators remain steadfast in determining what exactly caused the cataclysmic collapse.

It is a question that will take weeks, possibly even months, to determine, during what experts’ stress will be a highly complex investigative process. The investigation is likely to prompt changes in local building construction philosophies and how inspections and maintenance of these structures are conducted moving forward.

In this video, infrastructure expert Atorod Azizinamini—director of the Moss School of Construction, Infrastructure and Sustainability of the FIU College of Engineering and Computing—provides insight into what investigators will look for as they work to determine what went wrong.

Azizinamini directs FIU’s Preeminent Program for Resilient and Sustainable Coastal Infrastructure. He has worked on technologies for the construction of high-rise buildings in seismic regions and has developed advanced methods to detect corrosion in steel embedded in concrete.