Charles W. Burkett, the mayor of the town of Surfside, Fla., is “very concerned” that Allyn Kilsheimer, the town’s structural consultant probing the June 24 fatal collapse of part of the 12-story Champlain Towers South, has not been allowed on the site by the Miami-Dade Police Department. In addition, Burkett is troubled by a recent MDPD request for qualifications for local structural forensic engineering services that disqualifies any firm with “conflicts or associations with the building or the Town of Surfside.”
That rules out any application from Kilsheimer, founder, chairman and CEO of KCE Structural Engineers, based in Washington, D.C. “I’m very concerned that our expert, one of the most qualified engineers on the planet, has been blocked from the site” to study the foundations and anything below grade, says Burkett. “If the county is going to be hiring someone else, we need someone as qualified or more qualified than Allyn Kilsheimer.”