Miami-Dade College West Campus Classes Relocated Due to Garage Collapse: Officials

A drop-off and pick-up location was established at International Mall near Sears for transportation

Classes at Miami Dade College’s west campus, affected by the parking garage collapse, are scheduled to resume Monday but at different locations, the university announced.

The change comes days after a portion of a five-story campus parking garage collapsed at 3800 Northwest 115th Ave. Three people were killed and one man, identified by family members as Robert Budhoo, remains missing.

The school said Monday through Friday daytime credit classes will be held at the college's north campus, located at 11380 NW 27th Ave. Evening and Saturday credit classes will be held at Ronald Reagan Senior High School in Doral, but parking there will not be available. The west campus is expected to remain closed for several weeks, school officials said Saturday.

Due to the inconvenience, a drop-off and pick-up location was established at International Mall near Sears for transportation to the high school and the north campus.

VIDEO: Garage Collapse Response Turns to Recovery Operation

Non-credit daytime classes are scheduled to take place at Nova Southeastern University in Kendall, and evening non-credit classes will take place at Hammocks Middle School

Instructions were also sent directly to students, the school said.

“The Miami Dade College family sends its thoughts and prayers to those impacted by the accident at West Campus, especially the families and loved ones of those who perished and who were injured,” MDC said in a statement. “The College leadership thanks the students and employees of West Campus for their orderly response to the accident and their flexibility in the coming weeks.”

No students were in the garage, which was under construction.

William P. Byrne, president and chief executive officer of the company managing the project, Ajax Building Corp., held a news conference Thursday where he said there was "no warning whatsoever" of the collapse.

"We do not yet know the cause of this tragic collapse and it's far too early to speculate," Byrne said. "We will conduct a thorough and transparent review with all of our partners."

Byrne said once the investigation is complete, they'll bring in a team to determine what's safe and what's not.

"Our first order of business is to make sure everything's safe, second is to get Miami-Dade College back in business and then third would be to start to assemble the process to remove the debris and reconstruct the facility," Byrne said.

Ground was broken on the $22.5 million project in February, and the 1,855-space garage was to be finished in December. The first floor was to have classroom and office space.

The college serves about 8,000 students and is one of several campuses in the Miami Dade College system. The campus opened in 2006.

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