City, contractor disagree on safety of broken crane at GranParaiso site

The city of Miami and a contractor disagree on the safety of a partially collapsed crane at a construction site in Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood, and a voluntary evacuation of nearby buildings remains in effect.

City officials and executives of Plaza Construction were scheduled to meet today to resolve their disagreement, which stems from the partial collapse of a crane at the GranParaiso condo construction site on Sept. 10 due to Hurricane Irma.

Plaza Construction on Friday sent letters to the city’s building official, Maurice Pons, stating that crews secured the crane and its damaged jib  and that the crane didn’t damage the GranParaiso condo building under construction at the corner of Northeast 31 Street and Biscayne Boulevard.

But Pons determined that the letters from Plaza Construction lacked necessary assurances about the safety of the disabled crane, and he recommended that a voluntary evacuation of two nearby buildings remain in effect.

The crane at Related Group’s GranParaiso construction site was one of three that collapsed when Hurricane Irma hit Miami.

Crews secured a collapsed crane at the construction site of Related Group’s Auberge condo development on Fort Lauderdale’s beachfront.

But the status of a crane dangling from the top of PMG’s Vice residential development in downtown Miami was unclear Saturday night. [Miami Herald] — Mike Seemuth