Satellites Confirm Sinking of San Francisco's Millennium Tower

Re:Satellites Confirm Sinking of San Francisco's Millennium ... by joeblau on Friday November 25, 2016 @10:04AM (#13037177)

I would be infuriated if I purchased a condo there. It seems like every month since last year, there are articles talking about the project. I haven't heard any solutions to the problem and I don't know anything about construction. Is this the type of problem that can be fixed, or will they have to destroy the building and rebuild it?

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Re:Satellites Confirm Sinking of San Francisco's Millennium ... by jaclaz on Friday November 25, 2016 @12:07PM (#13038122)

The main issue here is understanding what is the actual cause of the sinking:

1) extensive dewatering of the soil under the building and around it

2) some mistake in the calculations of the project and/or some foundation work made in difformity from the project

3) a combination of the two

IF it is only #1 (this is what the builders say) then stopping the water drainage or even (in certain case) re-watering appropriately the soil would stop the sinking (at a relatively low cost).

IF it is #2 or #3 it is certainly possible to "better" the soil underneath or "add" some (underground) supporting structures (at a much, much higher cost).

And of course someone will have to pay the bill.

Techically, IF the cause is #1, it is called "subsidence":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsidence

more specifically:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundwater-related_subsidence

Edit: P.S.: Seemingly the SF Millennium got just cited here also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_leaning_towers

(maybe exaggerating a little bit, look for Santos, Brazil, strangely not listed in the wikipedia page)

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Re:Satellites Confirm Sinking of San Francisco's Millennium ... by cmurf on Friday November 25, 2016 @02:11PM (#13039101)

Too soon to tell. They need undisputable facts about the building shifting positions, and exactly what the risk is. High risk means the governing authority can condemn it, get people out, and sort out liability later.

No doubt determining liability will involve a lot of insurance negotiations along with various court cases. Maybe there's a code violation, but plans showing an inevitable violation were approved? Who is liable for that? Etc. There are many possible sources, even distributed sources, for a mistake like this. But central is determining the scope of the damage.

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