MIAMI (WSVN) - The Miami-Dade County Courthouse in downtown Miami remains closed Monday after a safety inspection that was conducted in the wake of the collapse of a Surfside condo building.
All business operations have temporarily returned to COVID-era operations with all employees working from home.
The change is due to safety concerns about the historic building at 73 West Flagler Street, according to a statement from county officials.
It was built between 1925 and 1928.
“We have termites, we have water intrusion, we have air quality, we have mosquitoes, we have flooding,” Judge Bertila Soto told 7News in 2014, outlining a long list of issues with the building. Among them, cracks and flooding.
An inspection conducted seven years later sent everyone packing.
Employees rolled out of the courthouse Monday with carts stacked with files, computers, chairs, and coffee makers. Some of them moved to the family court building a block away.
In the statement, officials wrote Friday they made the decision to close the building because, “The engineer’s report of the Courthouse identified safety concerns with various floors and recommended floors 16 and above be closed to staff while repairs are swiftly completed.”
This closure comes in the wake of the Surfside building collapse, which prompted the county to conduct an assessment of all county buildings at their recertification point.
The civil courthouse did not pass, and the new building plan approved by the county commission still has a long way to go.
After recently returning to a normal routine at the Dade County Courthouse, employees have had to move to a temporary office or head home to shift back to virtual operations.
Anyone who has an appearance coming up at the Dade County Courthouse should expect to get a notice soon with how to attend virtually.
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