Inspectors believe the problems that led to the hurried evacuation of hundreds from an Orange County apartment complex last month was caused by a gap between the building’s foundation and the soil below it.
The Rialto apartments in Dr. Phillips was hastily evacuated March 19 when structural damage was discovered, leaving its 358 residents without a home. One resident called 911 after hearing “popping” sounds coming from her walls and finding an apartment door wouldn’t open.
Firefighters were forced to break down her door and those of other residents to retrieve them, as cracks were seen around the doorframes.
Inspectors hired by the property owner have now found a gap between the concrete slab the building rests on and the soil beneath it measuring about three feet deep and 15 feet in diameter, according to a Wednesday letter from the inspectors to Orange County officials.
The gap runs under a load-bearing wall below the portion of the buildings where residents couldn’t leave their rooms. Inspectors believe it led to the downward movement of the slab and the wall. Other gaps were found between the concrete slab and the soil that ranged from half an inch to four inches, the letter said.
Dr. Kamal Tawfiq, a professor at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering in Tallahassee who has discussed the situation with his students, said the 3-foot-deep-gap was “significant” and may have been caused by soil erosion.
“There [may be] a leak somehow, this area of the foundation is not protected,” he said. “We have seen this many times where the rain and runoff, the surface water … would erode the soil. Slowly, you start to get some kind of separation between the soil and the foundation.”
The apartment’s location between Spring Lake and Little Sand Lake may have been a factor, too, Tawfiq said.
While there is no risk of imminent building failure, residents still aren’t allowed back, according to the inspectors letter. Inspectors will be installing supports below the concrete slab and will look into the cause of the gaps and the potential for future ones to occur, which could take more than 60 days, the letter said.
The complex is owned by Northland Investment Corporation, a Massachusetts-based real estate private equity firm. The company is paying its evacuated residents $1,000 each to help with moving costs and is not charging them rent for the days they cannot live in the building, a spokesperson said last month.