New Documents Provide Answers, Raise Questions About Troubled Millennium Tower
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- Опубліковано 7 вер 2024
- Newly-released documents tell a previously hidden story about the troubled fix of San Francisco’s sinking and leaning Millennium Tower. NBC Bay Area Investigative Reporter Jaxon Van Derbeken shows us why the documents provide some answers but also raise a very important new one.
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At what point will they just cut their losses and decommission the building? It’s a beautiful building but it’s seemingly becoming more of a safety liability by the day.
It will be fine for the next 10 yrs
Because they are greedy mf and that's what landed them where they are now!
@@cutratecontractor1000 , where is the engineering report that proves that? And not from an engineer that has already been proven wrong.
Dear Matthew Groza: If you lived there, would you be waiting for them to "decommission" that building ??? Not me, brother !!! I don't care if it ruined me financially !!! There is NO Way that I'd risk the life of my family by continuing to live in that Disaster Waiting To Happen !!!
The next big earthquake will provide more clarity
This building is like a failed marriage. You can try to keep working on it for years with no improvement. And it will ultimately collapse and end up in a divorce anyway. Sometimes you just have to cut loses and move on.
Perfect analogy
Only highlights the fact the building was built on unstable soil. That used to be the bay there and was filled in
14 tons more than expected... that seems like an awful lot ahahah!
Probably not much when comparing it to the building. It's basically the weight of about three forklifts.
14 tons isn't that much for concrete. That's not even one truck, about 7 yards.
I learned a song in childhood that went “ the foolish man built his house upon the sand ... “.
The power of greasing so many hands in the city to just look the other way. Hush hush money
This is what happens when you value action, over planning.
"This is what happens when you value *money over safety.* " (ftfy)
@@mulemule In this case, LACK of money.
I am extremely concerned for the people and buildings around SFO’s newest added landmark of LEANING TOWER.
When insurance companies start cancelling tenants policies, its time to move out.
who knows how many of them have a mortgage... it would financially bankrupting to the condo unit owners in some cases.
@@williamhaynes7089 There are going to be a lot of people that will get wiped out by the tower when it comes down. Now is when people are going to have to decide if that means financial death or physical death. The first is a lot easier to recover from than the latter.
I have a feeling this thing is going to come down during the next earthquake that hits that area.
No it's strong 💪
If it's strong enough not to fall over it will most likely sink straight down.
And fall into other buildings
Seismic liquefaction could actually level it out, although the ground level entrance would be under ground.
That was 5 minutes ago, its still standing.
After things don't go as expected, those in charge change their tune (2:00) and say "we expected this to happen." Yeah, I don't believe it for a second. They have no idea what's going on or how to fix it. This is what happens when you go cheap on construction. They knew better. They knew that pilings should have been to bedrock, but the contractors, engineers and builders wanted to save money. Well, how's that working for you now? They never learn - always thinking nobody will notice, that they can get away with it and if something does happen they can escape responsibility by blaming others. At this point, the tower should be brought down, rebuilt correctly and the developers should have to pay 100% of the cost.
Inevitably, they'll go bankrupt . . . in the process ! 💀
The bigger they are the harder they fall . Funny how people vote to bring down buildings for less stressful reasons , And here we are with one with every god given right to be put down. Yet its like the blind leading the blind .
Enjoy 😉
Nothings goings to get done until an earthquake hits SF…
maybe not after either if the whole city sinks in the drink.
Don't forget, SF is an earthquake hotbed. History proved this place can get up to magnitude 7.0.
Try 7.9 (1906)
Tomato Madness: Hmmm. Earthquake zone and built on sand...
Seems to me that I remember what sand likes to do in a quake.
Turn to liquid for a spell. Hope there is no water in that sand!!
what a mess
This building should never have been approved.
Imagine if this building decides to lean over and crash into everything else
Amazing, there are ways to do this so that there is NO CHANCE OF SETTLEMENT. Other cities use it exclusively due to danger of settling. It costs more, alot more. KNOWN solutions are being ignored by city officials, the only possible excuse is early city corruption in allowing inadequately engineered building to be approved to begin with.
Here's how you do it
You fill the drilled cassion with bentonite clay slurry. Such a material is heavier than anything but solid rock. Maintain level at surface ensures that at all depth the slurry will have same pressure as surrounding soil. Any voids the drill hits is instantly filled with the slurry. Any excess material removed, the void is instantly filled w slurry at the same pressure as the surrounding soil. Material is removed from bottom carefully and selectively if necessary by a clamshell bucket dropped down through the slurry. Hence its expense. It's slow, it's insanely messy requiring extensive efforts to control, the clay ain't cheap, the skilled personal rare and costly. When done, concrete rebar cages are lowered into slurry and concrete pumped down to displace slurry, forcing it to surface where it has to be captured, recycled or disposed of.
However, this insane effort is DOOMED to failure. It is predicated on being able to sit 400 ton jacks atop each pile and LIFT not just the building, but the 10 foot city block sized concrete slab under it AND the 100's of piles attached to it AND break the bond between soil and slab and piles, which is equal the the weight of the entire building. 400 tons per jack won't be enough. Coordination of lift heights at ea pile is near impossible, especially for a developer, contractor, engineer and city oversight that have failed miserably every step of the way, Finally, as piles are installed along less than 1/2 of slab, assuming it lifts the part with no new piles will be forced to sink or the 10 foot slab and impossible as it might sound will simply crack with utterly unanticipated results. We'll ignore if you do mange to lift the 10 foot thick slab you'll be leaving a void under it into which soil from around your new piles will flood into, destabilizing your new piles or you'd have to pump grount under the slab carefully as it's raised via holes bored through the slab and the steel rebar, weakening the slab.. The only fix , short of 1000 6 inch micro piles through the 10 foot slab along w slab repairs to compensate for holes, was to drill sufficient grid of piles outward of building into street, pour new mat, connect to old, stabilizing sinking. Then cut all columns and differential jack them even. Which is impossible as there is no 'slip connection' economically feasible to hold all columns in place after they are all cut.
There was briefly when first discovered after top out when settling occurred a time to solutions, starting w immediate grout pumping under building from perimeter and side drilling under the slab, installing new piles around building, and maybe more. As that was not done and building sunk 16 inches before it became news, the only solution has been demo, one floor at a time, by hand.
Take it down before it falls down!
But it's too large.
As I understand it even through the Sales Force Tower next to it is taller Millennium Tower weighs twice as much because they switched from steel to concrete at the last moment to save money.
Keep the cameras rolling 24/7 so we can enjoy the collapse.
RIGHT??? I CAN'T WAIT, IT'S GONNA BE A GRANDIOSE COLLAPSE. Hope the building is evacuated prior to the collapse, though
Well we're not quite sure how to fix this but we'll try one thing after. Hopefully the building won't fall over because of all our tinkering.
Why can't the constructor buy back all the units and just rebuild the whole God damn building.
I feel sorry for all those (poor) people that lives in the milleniam building. Lol.
They are all millionares and can get good lawers.
@@kthmalloy16 Or their heirs can hire good undertakers.....
Do you yell Timberrrr when a steel building falls over 🤪
Michael how many steel buildings fall over? Not much precedence so I say yell Timberrrr.
Anyone working in the tower or buidlings near it...get paid for potential risk?
No such thing as potential risk pay here! I work 2 blocks away. No one talks about it. Too many stressors and despite all the talk on the news about jobs surplus, it’s very difficult to land a living wage job in SF. Between homelessness, coming up with a personal plan of living/transportation/ life flow that doesn’t put you on the street with costs and Covid, thinking about millennium on the daily is just a notch past the edge 😬😰
Time to knock it down -- just get it over with.
Windows Millennium was a failure too. This building is cursed from the get go.
Our computer hardware class installed Windows ME in about 5 PC's to net work via Eathernet as I remember everyone of them crashed.
it worked ok, it was just windows 98 3rd edition,,,
@@williamhaynes7089 I remember when Windows 95 came out as an update for Windows 3.1 or a new install. I bought a PC in 96 but opted for Win 3.1 as Win 95 was too new and unstable. I got a newer PC about about 5 yrs later w/Win 98SE. Then Win 2000 Pro. XP Pro and Win 8.1
Problems will end as soon as it starts leaning on the building across the street
Lots of buildings around. Might fall like dominos.
Afraid those construction workers hard hats won't do too much good if there's an earthquake.
IDK, but it seems that sinking the high side should be the priority. Sinking the piles on the low side exascebated the lean... maybe start the piles on the high side and a counteractive lean should result.
except...
They are not putting piles on the high side (unless they changed the plan recently)
The realistic answer is that the building should be condemned and demolished. Also the responsible companies and responsible agencies should be fined for public endangerment. Rather than spend our tax dollars to fix the mistakes of for profit private companies.
I was there just a couple days ago as a tourist looking really dumb staring up at it
Friction piling to support what could be the heaviest building in San Francisco. Wasn’t anyone worried about liquefaction during an earthquake,
Only those without the power or money to do anything about it.
San Fran is an incredibly difficult place to build due to government regulations, ironically the place has the highest most unaffordable housing and now this happens ? Keep voting for big government and this is what you get.
Cracks in the basement and sewage not draining properly in the uppermost floors. Enough lean and the elevators will stop working. At least you’re going to get a good workout on the stairs.
Ahhh corruption continues ! Par for the course in California !
@Jimz You should replace the emm in your name with another zee . . .
Hope it is on video when it falls over i cant wait 😁💯
I give up.. Can't fix stuid. They'll keep trying to fix it even after it falls over,.
this one going down in engineering history like ye olde tacoma narrows bridge.
who in GAWDS NAME came up with the notion to put THAT MUCH WEIGHT on clay??? didnt they squish it in their toes as a kid? and who the FCUK approved the decision?
Now look folks, let me put it to U simple, let’s not turn this into another El flamingo casino in the middle of the desert; the way you fix this problem is reduce the weight of the building, that means you have to take a good portion of the top off of that building; you have to take it down. You keep digging holes and pouring crap and what not underneath that building you don’t know what you’re getting into.
sink the foundation down to Rock! Rock! ROCK!!!
Take the tower down! It must be demolished before earthquake crumble it….it’s over weight over capacity- obvious
It can't. It's too big.
Once it collapses, is going to start a domino effect, one building after another.
I see a complete chaos waiting to happen, it's all about when
i bet it would be cheaper to refund everyone their $ and tear it down. but they keep doubling down!
Tear it down until it stops moving.
It can't. It's too big.
TIMBERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR !
It will fall over eventually, probably at the next tremor.
Cheaper to dismantle than to face the tsunami of destruction , lives lost , and lawsuits from a collapse . . .
I'm enjoying the entertainment... Lol... #popcorn
Sink,sink faster,sink better. The builder forgot the saying "a stitch in time save nine". Greed rules OK
I would NOT let any family member of mine live in it, work in it, or in fact live in or work in ANY building nearby this dangerous monolith! It’s awful. Cut your losses and take it down.
What you are seeing is greed fighting greed.
There has been many respected astute Engineers that have deemed this building way beyond unsafe 💯
This is what happens when a high rise construction designer does not understand the inherent dangers of high rise design in the Bay Area but starts building a skyscraper just to get it done
What happens when there is a slight earthquake in San Francisco County
Could you cite please, I'm not finding anything.
Should have just built it in Oakland.
Tilting and in an earthquake zone?
These local channels have truly impressed me with their coverage. Have my like.
Building should just be imploded-all costs borne by the developers and unit-holders. Laws should be passed preventing costs from being passed to taxpayers.
The 'unit-holders' should bare no costs. They are not responsible for the construction or remediation.
But it's too large.
The owners, builders, and principles will let it ride until it is too unsafe to ignore, then they will dump it on the taxpayers to do an emergency dismantling, at prices multitudes beyond what a proper fix would have cost and many, many maltitudes building it right the first time would have cost.
@@sharon94503 someone is going to have to bear the costs-it will be too large for the developer to handle. Next people are the unit-holders. They are more responsible than the general taxpayers, who should not bear the brunt of all these mistakes made by greedy selfish stake-holders.
@@FranktheDachshund it won’t be possible. It’s too large. Any attempt will be expensive and the chances doing so will cause death or mass destruction are too high.
Why were the construction plans okayed in the first place despite the plans showing the support pylons were not going to bedrock? In S. California we were not as aware of liquefaction until about the early 70s. We did not have earthquakes turning soil and water into soup until then. Or at least it did not make headlines until the Van Norman earthen dam almost failed. They drained the reservoir and turned it into a park. Frisco has a history of liquefaction disasters and problems.
There is a building that looks a lot taller than the leaning tower. How was it’s support system built?
Because the building industry is currupt.
As the Bible says "the fool builds on sand".
One short phrase is the answer "Greased palms"
San Francisco antics would be a great sitcom. Netflix ought to think about doing something with that.
Deconstruct immediately! Construct at some other location!
2:06 Ben Dover, drilling expert
First significant quake comes along will fix it. Not if, when.
Time to take it down. Who in their right mind would invest their money in a property there?
No need to rebuild or tear it down to make it safe.
Just gradually excavate the ground underneath, letting the building slowly & steadily sink into the soil, filling the floors up with concrete.
Then when only 4-5 floors are above ground, sell it as a boutique condo in the middle of downtown. Simple.
😁
best idea yet
Unique idea.... hadn't thought of that. But with the current tinkering, they may doing just that.
Sounds like they didn't do their job well enough.
My favorite Geo Engineer is Ron Hamburger...
Time to start deconstruction.
It's too big for that.
@@QuarioQuario54321 No it’s not. The Japanese are taking buildings down all over the place they taken one down in New York there was a similar size. It’s not too big for that it can come down.
@@Jude74 The building is leaning. The fact there's danger on the ground could lead to a nightmare up top and there's no way to guarantee it won't fall over that way. It might not be even safe to go up there. The only other things they could do is to bomb it and watch as it falls down and kills people and causes an earthquake and does billions of dollars of damage and make the city go bankrupt and then the state and then America.
@@QuarioQuario54321 every architect and engineer has to submit deconstruction plans with their building. The technology exists. They can and should take it down.
@@Jude74 but there is too much risk involved. They cannot guarantee it will remain standing as they deconstruct it. There are too many unknowns. And some can't be found out without actually risking death or collapse.
I can already read the headlines.. "Tower collapse with hundreds killed".. They should start taking that building from the top down, maybe take away enough weight where the building will be light enough to stop sinking...
HARMON tower, in Las Vegas:
Example Failure 1) of 3)
At the beginning of the project, the hotel was called the Lifestyle Hotel and then The Harmon Hotel, Spa & Residences. The tower was planned to have 400 hotel rooms and approximately 207 condominium residences from 800 to 2,900 sq ft (74 to 269 m2) on 49 floors. The hotel's pool deck was planned to be on the roof high above the Las Vegas Strip. The exterior of the building was finished in 2009, but the interior work to correct the construction issues was to continue into 2010. (short version)
Example Failure 2)
Doofus engineers. SHOULD PLACE PILES, ON THE HIGH SIDE, not the low side ! dummies. DRILLING DOWN, causes a type of 'vacuum'. AND, NATURE ABHORS A VACUUM.
The mud/sand/clay will push into the hole, LOWERING the foundation, even more. dummies. Just keep doing, what your doing, will be an endless money-pit. This building is 686,000,000 pounds. Too much for the 'footprint' of the so-called ' engineered foundation ' !
For comparison purposes: FACTS One General Electric 4400 hp locomotive, fully fuelled weighs around 430,000 pounds. IT WOULD TAKE 1,595.4 of these to weigh the same amount. Doofus engineers, bought off by the greedy contractors, building on 160 year old filled-in rubble, without going to BED ROCK. see my other facts, here in comments. Good luck, people.
STUDY THIS The Millennium Tower may be the most recognizable sinking building in the city, but one researcher says earth-based and space-based observations confirm the entire downtown area around it is sinking as well. “I looked at every building in the Bay Area, so just under a million buildings,” said U.S Geological Survey research geophysicist Tom Parsons, who estimates that over the last century, 3.5 trillion pounds of development and human activity - including the subsidence tied to loss of groundwater -- have led to an estimated settlement of three inches across the entire Bay Area. “Clearly, the most density and the tallest buildings are centered in that downtown San Francisco area, and that's where we see the most calculated cumulative settlement from all of those buildings together," he said. Turns out that at an estimated 686 million pounds, the Millennium Tower is the third heaviest building in the city. The top nine all weigh more than 300-million pounds, but the only one that’s leaning significantly is the Millennium. Groundwater loss from adjacent construction has been blamed for the problem by the tower’s developers, while geotechnical experts say the key is that its foundation is not rooted in bedrock. “The Millennium Tower’s an unusual example of tilt, but generally they go down vertically,” said Parsons, who has long studied the stresses that build up on the earth’s crust. He says all the buildings downtown likely weigh enough to exert sufficient downward force to influence an earthquake fault. Fortunately, the San Andreas fault runs offshore before it reaches the city. So, he says, the billions of extra pounds will not likely have seismic implications. Still, the mass of sinking buildings shows up clearly in yellow in enhanced images captured by the European Space Agencys' Sentinel 1 satellite.
So is that engineer paying for all that work being done now? Expensive mistake
tear it down before gravity does the work for you.
Knock it down ,stop wasting money before the S.O.B. falls
They can't. It's too big.
Hopefully the whole building tips over sideways 🤣
Next time, go down to the bedrock!
A Japanese building engineer is shaking his/her head and wondering why they were not consulted in the first place. They know how to build safely.
uhh did you see the Kobe earthquake in '95?
Due to structural mistakes this building is becoming a money Pit.
It's all going into the Old Chinese tunnels.
It will fall soon!
You heard it here first, this building is going to collapse.
Too much pressure on the underlying rocks, sediments and earth. The surrounding buildings should also be inspected for any inconsistencies due to drilling and movements in the earth. SMEs..............GM.
Just lift the building and move it . Place a real foundation and replace building. Okay , I am just dreaming.
14 tons is 3/4 of a dump Truck load
Triaxle dump can carry 20 comfortably
"we brought in arm chair experts"... lets remind ourselves that one cubic yard of concrete weighs about 2000 lbs. Over that depth, 5-7 yards of overage isn't that big of a number. the bldg is going to end up on bedrock and stabilized. that is what matters now.
Tear it down
Before it falls down
Start looking at hydrometer levels
Good luck, people.
SO VERY SAD TO SEE WHAT'S HAPPENED TO SAN FRANCISCO'S ONCE BEAUTIFUL AND UNIQUE SKYLINE THAT SAT IT APART FROM JUST ANY OTHER LARGE CITY. The City used to have areas that were different than each other by cultures, architectures, and landscaping.
Clown Mayor Breed has ruined San Francisco. She's another failed case study for Affirmative Action opponents to publicize.
@@sec9500 The Mayor can be so proud of the fact SF has the most shit on it's sidewalks due to the "homeless advocacy" in play.
The San Francisco skyline looks awful with all these ugly towers for rich people.
Millennium Tower = Tower of Babbel.
I wouldn't rent anything in this building !!!
It is a ticking time bomb !!!
So , (Not being an optimist...) When the building fails...it will destroy the other buildings around it as well as cripple Metro. That's just great...(Sarcasm Alert.)
of all the things in the world as of today.....the ending of this interests me the most. they just keep DOUBLING DOWN on a bad hand....this is not poker. u cannot bluff and maybe win....this is OVER! and time and gravity are not on their side.
It's a disaster I would not care for repairs I would not want to be near that building Ever
Iconic great collapse for the Great Collapse.
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a big fall.
All the king's horses and All the King's Men couldn't put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
All the king's horses and all the king's men had scrambled eggs for breakfast . . .
My God !
Hell no
ugh.
How long till it falls over ?????
If it sinks 3 inches a year I'm guessing the day after tomorrow