Repairs to keep the Millennium Tower from sinking caused it to sink more

• Repairs to prevent the sinking of the 58-story Millennium Tower in San Francisco made matters worse.
• The problem could have been avoided if construction had been halted earlier, according to multiple reports.
• The luxury condo skyscraper currently slopes approximately 22 inches towards its northwest corner.

Repairs to prevent the sinking of the 58-story Millennium Tower in San Francisco caused it to sink even more.

Since opening in 2009, the $ 350 million Millennium Tower had already sunk 17 inches when construction came to a halt in late August after engineers determined the building had sunk another inch despite attempts to reinforce it. foundations, Insider reported previously.

Now, the luxury condo skyscraper tilts about 22 inches to the northwest, SFGate reported Thursday.

Robert Pyke, a geotechnical engineer, told local news station KPIX that the $ 100 million project to repair the sinking should have been stopped long before it was shut down in August.

AP / Eric Risberg

Engineers’ logs and internal emails obtained by the local CBS affiliate and verified by Pyke showed the accelerated sinking of the building began in May, but construction continued.

Chief engineer for the project, Ron Hamburger, told the news channel in a statement that they could have avoided sinking and tipping more if they had halted construction earlier.

“While some of the settlement and tipping that has occurred in recent months could have been avoided by stopping construction earlier, neither the safety nor the functionality of the building was affected and the project team gathered valuable information. on the causes of this settling as construction progressed, ”Hamburger told WPIX in a statement.

Hundreds of concerned residents sued the developers and designers of the skyscraper in 2016. While studies reported that the building showed “no evidence of life safety issues,” people expressed concern over the damage. potentials that an earthquake could have on the tower.

Eric Risberg / AP

A settlement was finalized last year, resulting in “very large” payments to condo owners and a plan to drill “52 concrete piles to bedrock” to stabilize the building, the San Francisco Examiner reported to the time.

But after months of work, the building sinks even further, causing repairs to be halted.

The skyscraper, which was first offered in 2002 and then built in 2005, has managed to sell condos for $ 100 million that have priced from $ 1.6 million to $ 10 million in only five weeks.

Construction on the building partially resumed this week, SFGate reported.