Former Supervisor Adds to Controversy Over Deadly Collapse

By Debra Wood

Revelations from a former construction supervisor on the Berkman Plaza II in Jacksonville, Fla., add more complexity but less clarity as to the possible cause of the December 2007 collapse of the condominium project’s parking deck, which killed one man and sent 23 people to the hospital.

Greg Roberts, a former employee of Choate Construction Co. of Atlanta, the construction firm building the six-story, 413-car, post-tensioned concrete garage and a 23-story condominium tower for developer Harbor Cos. of Atlanta, came forward with a tape recording of a June 21, 2007, Berkman Plaza construction meeting and emails indicating the project team knew the design was flawed. Roberts says the recording was made on his personal digital recorder.

“I did let them know before I left if they didn’t change the safety habits and make some changes, within six months they would kill somebody,” says Roberts, during an October 23, 2008, press conference held by Benjamin Crump, a Tallahassee, Fla., attorney for the family of Willie Edwards III, who was killed in the collapse.

Crump called the tape recording a “smoking gun,” that the legal team has documentation of a serious, willful violation and that the project team knew the design was flawed. An audio tape played at the press conference indicates the team discussed needing to change the dimension of a beam and the strength of the cables during that meeting, attended by representatives of the owner, subcontractors, the architect and Choate Construction. Roberts says he and other members of the team later traveled to Atlanta to meet with the engineer, Structural Consulting Group LLC of Alpharetta, Ga., and the architect Pucciano & English Inc. of Atlanta.

“They knew there was a likelihood it wasn’t going to stand,” Crump says.

Roberts said he is not an engineer and couldn’t say whether the beam and cable issue led to the collapse. However, it was not the only problem on his mind. He says there were cracks in the concrete that he could stick his fist into and areas where he could see the rebar. He asked for a peer review, but that did not take place before the collapse.

An April 16, 2007, email from Todd Osborne vice president of the Savannah Division of Choate, provided by Roberts, said Choate expressed concern that a peer review would “sever any relationships between the other parties and cement an alliance between the owner and designer against Choate.” The email said the company would consider a peer review as a last resort, if the company had to defend itself in a legal showdown.

“I had a lot of concerns,” Roberts says. “There’s nothing heroic about what I’ve done. This is what you should expect.”

In response to the press conference, Choate Construction issued a statement saying, “Mr. Roberts’ allegations that Choate Construction Co. was aware of design flaws during construction and therefore there was a likelihood the garage would collapse, are entirely without merit.” The company release said it had not had an opportunity to review the materials that support Roberts’ contention, however, based on what was released, the company said the comments were taken out of context.

Choate says that it called the June 21 meeting to discuss and resolve a specific reinforcing tendon cable detail in one particular beam type, since as configured, the number of cables would not fit properly in the beam.

“Resolution of such details by design professionals is customary and occurs on every project. There was no discussion of ‘redesign of the project,’” Choate says in the release.

Choate calls Roberts a hostile, ex-employee, who was not working for Choate at the time of the garage collapse. The release states, “Choate is involved in contentious litigation with Mr. Roberts regarding his appropriation of Choate property, and Mr. Roberts has demonstrated a record of untruthfulness, including submitting a falsified employment application with Choate and recently walking out of a deposition when Choate revealed it had discovered significant negative actions in Mr. Roberts’ past.”

Roberts responded that he was terminated after informing the owner that Choate had overbilled on the project. He says the property in his possession are records pertinent to the case. He denies falsifying anything on his employment application but admits walking out on the deposition when questions pertained to his family and not the investigation of the collapse.

Choate released a statement last month indicating that two forensic engineering firms concluded a structural design problem caused the collapse.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) concluded its investigation in June and cited Choate with three violations. It also cited the concrete formwork contractor Southern Pan Services of Lithonia, Ga. Both firms received a willful violation for failing to have a qualified person determine if the structure could support the additional three-quarters of an inch of wet concrete weight that was added to the 20-in floor slab. Choate is contesting the citations. Source: Engineering News-Record.

Gibson Industrial, Southern Industrial/Southern Crane Merge Operations

Officials with Gibson Industrial Services and Southern Industrial Constructors /Southern Crane recently announced the merger of their operations.

Kings Mountain, N.C.-based Gibson Industrial provides optical alignment, millwright/rigging and plant relocation services.

“Together as Southern Industrial, we can cost-effectively cover all of North Carolina and South Carolina for service and maintenance work, and pursue additional project work and plant relocations across the country,” said Earl Johnson Jr., founder and chairman of Southern Industrial, in a press statement

Founded in 1962 and based in Raleigh, N.C., Southern Industrial provides turnkey industrial construction, industrial electrical construction, turnkey plant installations and relocations, turnkey rigging and plant maintenance service, and specialized metal fabrication.

Southern Crane provides crane and rigging services.

Batson-Cook Honored for Flagler College Project

Batson-Cook Co. of Jacksonville, Fla., was recently honored for its renovation and new construction of the Molly Wiley Art Building on the campus of Flagler College in St. Augustine, Fla. The Florida Trust for Historic Preservation bestowed its Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Adaptive Use to the project.

The award was presented to the Molly Wiley Art Building for its new construction and historic renovation of the Ponce de Leon Hotel. This hotel, a fixture in St. Augustine for its design and commission by Henry Flagler, is a US. National Landmark and is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. As such, the project fully adhered to the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards. The award from the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation acknowledges the proper rehabilitation of the new structure to its new use, a contemporary arts building at Flagler College suitable for teaching and exhibiting.

GLE Associates Awarded $10 Million FEMA Contract

GLE Associates an environmental consulting firm with offices in Tampa, was awarded a five-year, $10 million contract with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to perform mold consulting throughout the United States.

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