The $100 million construction project to halt the sinking and tilting of a downtown San Francisco luxury skyscraper has been suspended as the high-rise continues to sink and tilt.
Work had begun in May to drill down hundreds of feet to stabilize the 58-story Millennium Tower. But engineers suspended the operation last week to assess why the building had sunk another inch during construction, NBC Bay Area News reported.
The tower, which opened in 2009, had been tilting slightly more than 17 inches at the top at the time work began and sinking had slowed. But by mid-August, the building’s foundation had sunk another inch since the upgrade work had started and the tilting had increased 5 inches, NBC Bay Area News reported.
Work is on hold for two to four weeks as builders and engineers attempt to understand the “increased settlement rate and available means of mitigating this,” Millennium Tower Association spokesman Doug Elmets said in a statement.
The work stoppage was done out of an “abundance of caution,” the association told residents, the TV station reported. “There has been no material harm to the building … and it remains fully safe,” the station reported the association as saying.
The building is settling and tilting more because of the ongoing construction including some holes drilled slightly larger than planned, according to documents NBC Bay Area acquired.
The Millennium Tower quickly sold out its 419 apartments upon its opening, with big-name buyers…
