Engineering report urges city to allow residents to return to Rochester Towers

ROCHESTER — Following a month of repairs, engineers are calling Rochester Towers condominiums “currently safe” for occupancy in a report with dramatic photos of crumbling concrete columns whittled away with extensive erosion.

“In our professional opinion and based on the current information, the building structure in its current condition, with shoring and reinforcement measures that have been implemented to support Column B-8, Column E-8, and the ramp entrance slab is safe,” stated the report by Minnetonka-based Encompass engineering consultants.

Encompass submitted the 49-page report to the City of Rochester Thursday evening.

About 180 residents of the 15-story condominium tower at 207 Fifth Ave. SW were abruptly evacuated on June 2, 2023, when an inspection found structural problems and deemed it unsafe for occupation. The residents have been living in hotels and with family or friends since.

Emergency shoring stabilized the building in the hours after the discovery of the problems and now further repairs has rendered most of the 90 units safe.

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About nine units have column “shoring” inside and Encompass recommends that they not be re-occupied. Two other units have windows removed and are not recommended to be occupied before the windows are installed.

“City teammates are reviewing the documents at this time. A decision on the partial occupancy request is expected within 5 business days," according to a statement released by the city.

The extensive engineering report detailed the discovery of the structural problems at the Rochester Towers, its evacuation, the emergency shoring work to stabilize the building and what repairs have been made for the structure to be safe for partial occupancy.

It provided a timeline for the discovery of the 54-year-old tower’s structural problems.

The report described the corrosion of the concrete columns as “indicative of prolonged exposure of reinforcement to moisture. Over time, corrosion of concrete reinforcement results in expansive forces within concrete that results in concrete cracks and spalls.”

Two of the damaged columns had received concrete patches in the past. “The presence of a patch material at each location is evident by the varying material color and aggregate size.”

Full report:

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