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Repair work paused on S.F.'s Millennium Tower due to continued sinking
J.K. Dineen
Aug. 25, 2021
Updated: Aug. 25, 2021 3:42 p.m.

The $100 million fix meant to shore up San Francisco’s famously sinking and leaning Millennium Tower has been put on hold for up to a month while engineers try to figure out why the building has settled an additional inch during the current remedial construction.

In a statement, a spokesman for the Millennium’s homeowners association said that the latest monitoring of the building has “indicated an increased rate of settlement associated with pile installation” . . . .

“Out of an abundance of caution, we have placed a two- to four-week moratorium on pile installation while we try to understand better the mechanisms associated with the increased settlement rate and available means of mitigating this,” said Doug Elmets, spokesman for the building. “There has been no material harm to the building and it remains fully safe" . . . .

A 2020 confidential settlement not only compensated homeowners for value lost due to the construction issues but also included a $100 million fix: 52 concrete, 140,000-pound piles that will anchor the building to bedrock 250 feet below ground. The two-year project was billed as a way to relieve stress on soils that have compressed beneath the building, contributing to its unwelcome and unanticipated sinking.

“This plan halts settlement along Fremont and Mission streets while allowing the building to level itself over time,” said project engineer Ronald Hamburger of Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, at the time construction started.

While the building has continued to sink during construction, Elmets said the outlook is still positive.

“Once pile installation is complete and load is transferred to the new piles, the building will experience substantial improvement and begin to recover some of the tilting that has occurred over the years,” he said.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/artic...r-16411876.php

Well, maybe.