Plan to repair ‘dangerous’ balconies on Atlanta apartment building moving forward
The plan to fix balconies that could fall apart above a busy Atlanta street began on Wednesday.
“It’s a huge hazard,” Tylaa Young.
Young said she walks underneath the balconies nearly every day. They’re connected to a high-rise apartment and condo complex called 788 West Midtown.
McKinley Homes owns it and said Batson-Cook Construction was in charge of building the balconies.
Less than five years later, management sent a letter to residents that said a piece of a balcony on the 13th floor detached.
McKinley Homes hired an inspector who said 220 balconies have problems such as cracks, deep holes, and exposed rebar.
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The inspector wrote in his report that there should be no jumping or leaning on railing. He said 42 of the balconies are so dangerous that no one should be on or under them.
Managers for McKinley Homes provided Channel 2’s Courtney Francisco with an eight-step plan Batson-Cook prepared to fix the problems. It began Wednesday with a team scanning balconies and checking bars.
After that, there are six steps for repair such as adding rebar, filling chipped concrete and waterproofing.
Neighbors like Prince Miller asked, “Aren’t they supposed to check for that stuff before, like, building the infrastructure?”.
Atlanta does not inspect balconies on buildings, according to the Department of City Planning. A spokesperson said the city allows general contractors to hire private companies to perform inspections. The city said it does not maintain or check results.
“That seems potentially harmful,” said Miller.
The third-party inspector listed on the records the City of Atlanta does maintain is called Atlas Technical Consultants.
Channel 2 has emailed Atlas and Batson-Cook to see the initial inspection results. Neither team has responded.
McKinley Homes’ team said they are going to add netting around the building soon to try to prevent anything from falling on someone underneath. A date for the installation has not been set yet.
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