After the tragic Surfside condominium collapse outside of Miami earlier this year, SSR was engaged by the ownership team of FTX Arena to provide a structural assessment of the building with a major focus on the parking garage. Home to the NBA’s Miami Heat, the arena was required by local authorities to have an outside source perform an impartial assessment, in addition to the arena’s regular assessment.

The structural assessment focused on the single-story parking garage that spans under the arena plus a smaller garage on the second level. Using some GIS applications, the SSR team was able to upload the original arena plans and then use those plans to document the location of the issues found in the field.

Our team was looking for any cracking, exposed rebar, and obvious signs of water intrusion. FTX Arena is located across Biscayne Bay from Miami Beach and salt water is a potential concern for the structure. Salt water is very rough on concrete and expedites the corrosion of reinforcement, especially where cracks are present.

During the assessment, our team uncovered some joint issues and deterioration caused by water intrusion. SSR recommended some of the joints to be replaced and others reconfigured to drain better. Other beams and columns were found to be overloaded, so the SSR team looked at ways to strengthen them.

Overall, our team found that the structural integrity of the parking garages was intact, only needing some minor repairs and reinforcement.