“We are fully confident that following transfer of the remaining design load to the piles,’’ Hamburger told us in a statement, “there will be no further …. Hamburger said he considers that amount of added tilt “negligible.” It currently shows the tower is tilting more than ever to the west, but only by about a quarter of an inch. He pointed to foundation-based data as being more reliable.įoundation-based monitoring data fluctuated less when the tower was partly transferred to six piles in January. In a statement, Hamburger indicated that the rooftop data is prone to weather fluctuations. As a result, the tower is now leaning about a half-inch more to the west than before it was first supported along Mission. ![]() ![]() One reflects rooftop measurements, the other, foundation-based determinations.īack in January, fix engineer Ron Hamburger pointed to rooftop-based monitoring data as reflecting early success with the reversal of some of the tower’s western tilt following the transfer of the some of the tower’s load onto piles along Mission Street to the northwest corner.īut in recent weeks, the rooftop data is reflecting the loss of the improvement and a trend of worsening tilt. The engineers have relied on two types of measurement to determine lean. In responding to questions about the tower, engineers in charge of the project cast doubt on the reliability of the rooftop-based data they had cited when they declared some early success. “You spend all this money, but you still have an uncertain result long term.” “As far as remedial work goes, this is just a mess,” said veteran geotechnical engineer Bob Pyke, a long time skeptic of the $100 million plan to fix the troubled tower. Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter. The project is currently expected to be wrapped up by September of this year, Hamburger now says.Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Offsetting tilt, he said, has been a secondary goal. “I don't think there's any cause for optimism here,” Poulos said, adding: “Because it's like in a medical procedure where you think you're fixing the patient, and you, in fact, do something wrong and you actually make him worse.”īut Hamburger stresses the primary goal of the project has always been to ultimately stabilize the structure. Once work is done extending the foundation along Fremont, crews are going to transfer 15 million pounds of weight onto the dozen piles along the west side of the tower, Hamburger said.Ĭomputer models designed to predict behaviorproject that the work will offset about 4.5 inches of lean at the northwest corner if all goes to plan.īut Harry Poulos, an internationally recognized tall building expert, stresses that even if the fix works as planned it will offset less than half the 10 inches of tilting caused during the fix work. Hamburger told residents he expects that just taking some weight off the building along Mission “would slow substantially, if not stop” more settlement, adding that preliminary data shows the early phase “has been successful and exceeded the engineering team’s projections.” Millennium Tower Fix Shifts to Hasten Completion Ultimately, the building will be tied to 18 piles already sunk to bedrock, six on Mission and the balance on Fremont Street. ![]() The goal for now, he said, is to stabilize the tower’s north side so crews can dig much more to extend the foundation along the west side of the structure along Fremont Street. That is about half the load the Mission Street piles will ultimately carry, he said. In an email update Saturday to residents of the building, lead fix engineer Ron Hamburger said three million pounds of the building’s weight along the Mission Street side is supported by six piles that extend down to bedrock on the north side. The high-rise is currently tilting more than 29 inches at the northwest corner, about a third of that lean occurring after construction began back in 2021 on work aimed at stabilizing the building. San Francisco’s troubled Millennium Tower high-rise is now supported partially on one side to piles sunk to bedrock – bolstering that should assure the $100 million project will be completed without more sinking and tilting of the building, the fix’s lead engineer is telling residents.
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