NIST Submits Annual Report to Congress Summarizing FY 2025 Progress on National Construction Safety Team Investigations

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has submitted to Congress its annual update on activities under the National Construction Safety Team (NCST) Act. The report includes an overview of work completed in fiscal year 2025 on the investigation into the 2021 partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside, Florida. The report outlines how the investigation’s team has completed the majority of its technical work, including the testing of materials beneath the building site; full-scale building replica tests; analysis of data and evidence to update the building collapse timeline; and more. The report also provides highlights of NIST’s investigation into the impacts of 2018’s Hurricane Maria on Puerto Rico, as well as actions taken to implement recommendations in the NCST Joplin tornado investigation final report to improve building safety and structural integrity. The full report can be found on the NIST website. Each year, the NCST Advisory Committee, which advises NIST on carrying out its investigations, also submits a report to Congress. The committee’s most recent report, which includes findings and recommendations related to its evaluation of NCST activities and an assessment of the implementation of the committee’s recommendations, was submitted to Congress in December 2025. In the report’s summary of the investigation to date, the committee stated that the Champlain Towers South team “has conducted a thorough and comprehensive building collapse investigation.” It also stated that the committee expects that “the CTS NCST reports on its investigative methodologies will improve the state of practice for investigations of less severe, but more common building failures.” The committee also provided recommendations for the team’s final report. The Champlain Towers South investigation team plans to provide its next technical presentation in the form of a video update in June 2026. All previous updates on the investigation can be found on the NIST website.