Miami-Dade County Commissioners on Tuesday approved emergency repairs for a potential crisis first flagged seven years ago, when engineers warned the county that were falling down and endangering pedestrians and passengers.
A 2012 report from the Atkins engineering firm first detailed problems with the hollow acoustical walls that were constructed when Metrorail launched in the 1980s. Atkins engineers said “failure of these panels may occur during a Category 1 hurricane or an extremely strong microburst weather event.” The report said it was “imperative to either replace or strengthen these panels in a reasonable period of time to maintain the safety of the traveling public.”
“We’re talking in terms of slabs of concrete that could literally fall and kill somebody,” Commissioner Esteban “Steve” Bovo said Tuesday.
Read more at our news partner, .