Posted on 06/11/2023 10:35:32 PM PDT by lowbridge
The Bay Area’s Millennium Tower has only continued to tilt further and sink deeper west in spite of architects’ best efforts to steady the ritzy building.
The multimillion-dollar-per-unit tower is now leaning more than 29 inches at the corner of Fremont and Mission streets — a slant over half an inch deeper than previously revealed, according to monitoring data reviewed by NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit.
The half-inch tilt was reportedly gained while engineers dug beneath the sinking condominium earlier this year to support the weight of the tower — which was built atop a former landfill — along its two sides.
Fix engineers saw progress in stabilizing the Millenium Tower’s north side along Mission Street after implementing six concrete-filled steel piles along its base in January, but it may have come at a cost to the tower’s west side, the data shows.
Rooftop-based monitoring data — which is based on rooftop measurements and foundation-based determinations — indicates the tower shifted nearly an inch to the west compared to its tilt before it was supported on the north side.
Engineers in charge claim the data may not be reliable, despite pointing it to as proof of success earlier in the first phase of the project.
Project engineer Ron Hamburger told NBC in a statement that the rooftop figures are prone to weather fluctuations and said purely foundation-based data is more reliable.
The foundation-based digits also show that the tower is tilting more toward the west than ever, but only by about a quarter of an inch — a lean Hamburger claimed was “negligible.”
“We are fully confident that following transfer of the remaining design load to the piles,’’ Hamburger said, adding that “there will be no further … movement of the roof to the west.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I’ve actually met him. Quite brilliant and probably the best forensic engineering team leader in the country. Led the twin towers analysis twenty years ago.
In the meantime they are asking people not to push on the building as it may topple over....
SF approved the foundation, construction was underway, then SF decided to dig a hole in the ground nearby.
The mitigation method recommended by an engineer who has dealt with plenty of this was rejected for a cheaper approach.
IOW, plenty of blame to go around.
The building will have to be dismantled, or the next big quake will dismantle for them, along with one or more neighboring buildings when it falls into them.
OTOH, here’s a couple of mo’s, so who cares?
Owners Of $4M Millennium Tower Apartment Detect Tilt With A Marble
KPIX | CBS NEWS BAY AREA
368K subscribers
101,388 views
November 2, 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaEgkt8rGww
A couple owning a $4 million apartment in the Millennium Tower in San Francisco detect the tilt when they roll a marble. Joe Vazquez reports. (11/1/16)
Did I Uncover a $100,000,000 Mistake with the Millennium Tower “Fix”?
32:36
Building Integrity
69.2K subscribers
380,475 views
April 5, 2023
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xezg8PxVSYA
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