Construction review of new Fort Lauderdale police HQ reveals major issues

There are major safety concerns at the new, under construction headquarters for the Fort Lauderdale Police Department.

The facility looks like it’s nearly complete, but a new construction review is raising some flags.

“They are concerned that during a storm event, the building doesn’t meet the design specs for that type of storm,” said Fort Lauderdale Assistant City Manager Anthony Fajardo.

The independent review, which can be read by clicking here, called in by the city, states that “columns (are) overstressed” and “concrete core wall is not code compliant.”

“There are certain critical life safety components that aren’t built to specs they need to be at,” said Fort Lauderdale Vice Mayor John Herbst.

Last summer, Herbst wanted to take it down and start from scratch.

“We had moved along with construction during this time frame and that was a mistake,” he said.

The big veteran companies and contractors doing this build countless South Florida projects. They all missed the design flaw from the beginning. Construction crews don’t question approved designs, they work off them.

“We deserve an answer as to how this went unnoticed by anybody for so long,” said Herbst.

“Even though the design flaw that are concerning at this stage of the construction project, if they are all addressed properly, we will have a building that functions as designed,” said Fajardo.

The city gave the builders two weeks to digest the report and report back, and another two to bring back potential remedies.