San Francisco’s troubled Millennium Tower, which has continued to sink despite multimillion-dollar efforts to correct it, has yet developed another problem.

The luxury tower, popular among star athletes and retired Google employees before the tilting issues were widely publicized, has sunk 18in since construction was completed in 2009, and has a 26in tilt at the top. Now, the engineer overseeing the retrofit of the tower has said the movement caused the formation of a one-inch gap between the building and a smaller 12-storey adjacent structure.

“Given the present westward tilt of the building, about 24 inches as measured at the roof, the gap between the two buildings in the east-west direction has widened by about 1 inch[2.5cm],” the project engineer, Ron Hamburger, said in a statement to NBC Bay Area.

The Millennium Tower uses an underground parking garage housed within the smaller structure.

Despite the gap, engineers “determined that the building is not at risk due to this movement, or any movement likely to occur before construction completion”, Hamburger said, and the gap is not expected to get worse. He has previously warned that the tower’s elevators and plumbing may no longer work if sinking continues at its current rate.

Engineers are working on a retrofit of the building and plan to install 18 steel piles to bedrock, relieving pressure on the foundation, to stop further tilting and sinking as well as possibly reverse some of the movement.

“Once the voluntary upgrade is complete, further settlement of the building at the northwest corner will be arrested, some rebound will occur, and slight additional settlement of the rest of the main tower will act to reverse the tilting that has occurred and close the gap between the elevator thresholds in the adjacent podium building that connects the main tower and mid-rise together,” Hamburger told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Previous efforts to reinforce the foundation of the downtown tower came to a halt last summer, when engineers found the building had sunk an inch in the months since the attempted repairs started.

The post An inch aside: new troubles for San Francisco’s Millennium Tower | San Francisco appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

San Francisco’s troubled Millennium Tower, which has continued to sink despite multimillion-dollar efforts to correct it, has yet developed another problem.

The luxury tower, popular among star athletes and retired Google employees before the tilting issues were widely publicized, has sunk 18in since construction was completed in 2009, and has a 26in tilt at the top. Now, the engineer overseeing the retrofit of the tower has said the movement caused the formation of a one-inch gap between the building and a smaller 12-storey adjacent structure.

“Given the present westward tilt of the building, about 24 inches as measured at the roof, the gap between the two buildings in the east-west direction has widened by about 1 inch[2.5cm],” the project engineer, Ron Hamburger, said in a statement to NBC Bay Area.

The Millennium Tower uses an underground parking garage housed within the smaller structure.

Despite the gap, engineers “determined that the building is not at risk due to this movement, or any movement likely to occur before construction completion”, Hamburger said, and the gap is not expected to get worse. He has previously warned that the tower’s elevators and plumbing may no longer work if sinking continues at its current rate.

Engineers are working on a retrofit of the building and plan to install 18 steel piles to bedrock, relieving pressure on the foundation, to stop further tilting and sinking as well as possibly reverse some of the movement.

“Once the voluntary upgrade is complete, further settlement of the building at the northwest corner will be arrested, some rebound will occur, and slight additional settlement of the rest of the main tower will act to reverse the tilting that has occurred and close the gap between the elevator thresholds in the adjacent podium building that connects the main tower and mid-rise together,” Hamburger told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Previous efforts to reinforce the foundation of the downtown tower came to a halt last summer, when engineers found the building had sunk an inch in the months since the attempted repairs started.

The post An inch aside: new troubles for San Francisco’s Millennium Tower | San Francisco appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

A trough of low-pressure was spread across the San Francisco Bay Area on Wednesday morning, delivering heavy drizzle to many locations, the National Weather Service said.

A weather gauge in San Francisco’s Sunset District had measured 0.05 inches of rain as of 7:30 am on Wednesday. A gauge near Dolores Park picked up 0.01 inches.

The weather service’s downtown San Francisco gauge measured 0.01 inches. Is that a record? Not quite. In 2011, the gauge hit 0.03 inches on July 13. This record could be broken later this morning, said Dalton Behringer, a forecaster with the weather service’s Monterey office.

Up to 0.01 inches fell across the East Bay hills. Half Moon Bay has seen the highest amount of precipitation so far with 0.06 inches.

Behringer said residents in the Santa Cruz Mountains reported rain in their gutters to the weather service.

“It’s a light summer rain,” Behringer said. “I wouldn’t say it’s entirely unusual, especially in coastal locations.”

Behringer said the low-pressure system pushed into Northern California from the Pacific Northwest and it’s competing with a ridge of high pressure over the Great Basin.

“There’s a battle between a ridge of high pressure over the Great Basin and a trough out over the Pacific Northwest, and that trough is currently keeping us under that cool onshore flow,” he explained. “As we move into the weekend, some of the guidance is hinting at the ridge winning and warming up.”

Temperatures will start to climb Thursday with Saturday expected to be the hottest day of the week. On Saturday, afternoon highs are forecast to be in the 90s in inland locations and the 70s along the coast.

The post Is that rain in San Francisco this morning? Sure, and one spot measured 0.05 inch appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

San Francisco’s troubled Millennium Tower, which has continued to sink despite multimillion dollar efforts to correct it, has yet developed another problem.

The luxury tower, popular among star athletes and retired Google employees before the tilting issues were widely publicized, has sunk 18in since its construction was completed in 2009 and has a 26in tilt at the top. Now, the engineer overseeing the retrofit of the tower has said the movement caused the formation of a one-inch gap between the building and a smaller 12-story adjacent structure.

“Given the present westward tilt of the building, about 24 inches as measured at the roof, the gap between the two buildings in the east-west direction has widened by about 1 inch[2.5cm],” the project engineer, Ron Hamburger, said in a statement to NBC Bay Area.

The Millennium Tower uses an underground parking garage housed within the smaller structure.

Despite the gap, engineers “determined that the building is not at risk due to this movement, or any movement likely to occur before construction completion”, Hamburger said, and the gap is not expected to get worse. He has previously warned that the tower’s elevators and plumbing may no longer work if sinking continues at its current rate.

Engineers are working on a retrofit of the building and plan to install 18 steel piles to bedrock, relieving pressure on the foundation, to stop further tilting and sinking as well as possibly reverse some of the movement.

“Once the voluntary upgrade is complete, further settlement of the building at the northwest corner will be arrested, some rebound will occur, and slight additional settlement of the rest of the main tower will act to reverse the tilting that has occurred and close the gap between the elevator thresholds in the adjacent podium building that connects the main tower and mid-rise together,” Hamburger told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Previous efforts to reinforce the foundation of the downtown tower came to a halt last summer, when engineers found the building had sunk an inch in the months since the attempted repairs started.

The post An inch aside: new troubles for San Francisco’s Millennium Tower | San Francisco appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

SAN FRANCISCO – A $ 100 million fix to keep a luxury San Francisco skyscraper from sinking and toppling even more is put on hold while engineers try to figure out why the building moved an additional 2.5 centimeters during repairs has decreased.

Doug Elmets, spokesman for the Millennium Tower, said in a statement that the pile installation to reinforce the building’s foundation has been suspended for two to four weeks as they seek to understand why the “increased rate of settlement and the means available to mitigate it” are to be understood .

Elmets said the building was safe, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Thursday.

The 58-story tower opened to fanfare in 2009 and all 419 apartments quickly sold out. Celebrity residents included former San Francisco 49er Joe Montana, late venture capitalist Tom Perkins, and Giants outfielder Hunter Pence.

But by 2016, the building had sunk four inches into the soft ground and landfill of San Francisco’s dense financial district. It was also sloped, creating a 5 cm slope at the base and a 15 cm slope at the top. Local residents sued the developer and designers.

A confidential agreement reached with homeowners last year included $ 100 million to install 52 63,500 kilograms of concrete piles to anchor the building 76 meters below the bedrock. Piles provide foundation support.

The post San Francisco’s Millennium Tower sinks one other inch, repairs halted appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.