"Hundreds" of cracks have been discovered in beams supporting the exterior walls of four parking garages being built adjacent to the new Marlins stadium, according to the Miami Herald.
Discovered in March during an inspection, the cracks occured because the architectural firm Leo A. Daly "miscalculated some of the load," City of Miami project manager Robert Fenton told the paper.
The City of Miami, who is paying $75 million to build the garages, is contractually required to have the garages ready a month before the Fish begin play next April.
But the cracks must be repaired, a possible $1 million task that falls to the Omaha-based Daly firm. A vice president at the company confirmed to the Herald that the firm accepts responsibility, but noted that a subcontractor had worked on the design of the beams in question.
Fenton estimates that repairs -- which involve boring into the beams to insert more rebar -- will push the five- and six-story structures' completion to December.
City officials stressed Friday to the Herald that the cracks posed no structural danger, but rather would have in time shortened the lifespan of the garages due to rainwater leaking in and softening the concrete from the inside.
The building project has been controversial from the start. After the Orange Bowl was torn down, the Marlins pled poor to Miami-Dade County and wrangled a deal to pay just $155 million of the estimated $634 million stadium complex.
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But though the project is estimated to cost generations of taxpayers approximately $2.4 billion, it was never subject to taxpayer approval, and financial documents leaked a short time later to Deadspin.com showed the team had turned a $37.8 million profit in 2008.
