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The Fight to Fix the Tilting Millennium Tower
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- Опубліковано 20 бер 2023
- This 197-metre skyscraper in San Francisco is leaning over.
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Narrator - Fred Mills
Producer - Tim Gibson
Video Editing - Kurt Fernandes
Motion Graphics - Vince North
Executive Producers - Fred Mills and Graham MacAree
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I love these skyscraper videos it's very informative and very interesting to watch. The B1M is the best
Absolutely
@EternalResonance
Brilliant!! Haha!!
I LOVE LEANNN
Repent to Jesus Christ
“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
Psalms 139:23-24 NIV
J
@EternalResonance I gather you are still in high school.
its crazy to me that a 200m tall structure wouldn't have been secured to the bedrock in the first place.
@YayLaika internet invented and funded first form by American military defense spending in the 50 and 60s
there is no bedrock. all ther is is dirt.
@Irshi CosMos Americans it's not a surprise
@Owen Mclain in the usa not america...
@Andrew schaefer whahahaha american company's??? go check who made the actual hardware software??you will be suprised!!
The Building Integrity channel did a very good job of explaining the causes of this towers flawed foundation system. While the construction of the transit center may have contributed to the issue, the buildings foundation design is to blame. The bay area is well known for the layers of silt and clay that underlay many areas. Where the tower was built used to be under bay water until filled in. I believe the builders wanted the city of San Fransisco to pick up the 5 million dollar tab for setting pilings all the way to bedrock, so went the cheaper route when the city refused. Now they are spending more than that just in lawyers fees.
I'm not too worried. In the near future, a flying man wearing his underwear over his pants, with superhuman powers, will push it the other direction and let the tower settle.
Yeah, compared to those videos, I don't understand how this one has 1.8 MILLION views. Must be the accent.
@Namm0x What would the false narrative be here?...
@j. rodman
My understanding is that the de-watering that occurred for the excavation of the transit center may have accelerated the sinking problem, but was very unlikely to be the cause. I saw a nearby project that used cased pilings being installed after the de-watering and excavation for the transbay center, where an outer steel tube is driven into the ground while the center is being emptied out with a drill system, then the center filled with reinforced concrete. I remember watching this process, and they were pulling a lot of water out with each load of material. I could see the different material being pulled up as they went through the different layers. That bay clay is a sticky gooey mess.
It amazes me that all skyscrapers don’t have foundation into bedrock. I would have thought that was a necessity for something that massive that might stand for 100+ years.
@stillwill2215 wanna bet?
The Shell building in New Orleans is built on concrete pilings that go down 260 feet without hitting bedrock.
@HeadNtheClouds Not yet. Why are you asking? Need some material to process?
Have you made a bowel movement today? 💩🐻
Uh, that won;t be standing next year.
That concrete spalling damage sent a chill down my spine. Those walls have lost pretty much all of their integrity.
Those photos are of poorly placed 'shotcrete'. The problem is described as lensing.
@Michael Dintcheff not necessarily... as mentioned, water seemed to seep through the walls. So possibly it's just an issue related to corrosion of the reinforcement bars. As corrosion increases the volume of the rebar, internal stresses can lead to the concrete covering starting to crumble. I would definitely check what's going on with the water ingress.
@Michael Dintcheff accurate, yessir. The more that wall breaks down, the less load it takes, that weight doesn’t go away, just gets transferred to other places, weaker places, places not meant to hold that much, so it becomes a bigger problem literally every minute they’re not doing anything.
one major issue you skipped. the lean was spotted in 2011 before the transit centre even started digging. Also the height and weight of this building (being both tall and concrete, a first of that combo in the area) is far outside of the norm yet they didn't go to the bedrock even when that is common for most towers anyway. so instead it will cost 20-50 times the cost to put a pile to that depth now than during construction.
I personally expect a it to be written off as the lawyer and repair costs spiral to more than the building is worth.
How can you have a building design that requires all adjacent property owners not build or put a shovel in the ground because it will start the leaning and collapse of your building.
Why not just tear it down???
Amazing how people will repeatedly cheap out short-term and pay a big price later. I'd rather do it right than do it over, but hey, what do I know? 🙄
LEAN
That's crazy! Why would you try to make such a large tower and not utilize bedrock from the offset? I don't understand how this was allowed to happen.
With how many times Kiryu, his buddies, and his enemies fight in/on the damn thing, I'm not surprised its tilted and sinking. Surprised the damn thing is still standing, in all honesty.
Came looking for this haha
Chairman Sera should have used that 10 billion yen to fix the tower instead of letting it be stolen by Jingu's ex-wife.
I was hoping to see at least one reference to Yakuza in the comments 🤣
Solid reference
How much extra would it have cost to dig the original foundation piles down to the depth of the proposed new ones?
Late reply, but worth a try. The original column are carrying the existing weight. So extending them is not possible. Only exterior columns can be done.
Dude, you’re everywhere.
As much as chocolate rain!!!!
5 million. they wanted the city to pay for it.
The cracking basement/parking walls are freaking me out. The house I grew up in had a full basement that wasn't built properly, so when it rained, water would come down the front wall of the house and seep through the underground wall, flooding the basement. You'd hear these loud, scary creaks and noises.
It also had a concrete carport that butted up to the front door, and about five years in, the slab sank 12-14 inches. I was so happy the day we moved out!
Is that house still standing? Wonder what condition is it in currently.
@Jake G Freaking out from the video; I don't live there. Footage reminded me of my old house.
Are you freaking out from this video? Or do you live there?
I'm not sure this building is a great example of "how robust the engineering of modern megaprojects really is". Given the awards that were given to this building suggests more rubber stamping is going around. I'm sure there will be lessons learned of course.
@Arandomcommenter 😂
@cplcabs Most was built 75 years ago and anything they do today takes a decade just to look like it was super rushed and not thought out correctly somehow
@cplcabs Built to last not included
Seems to be a great example of US engineering, what with the buildings, dams and bridges collapsing regularly
I remember a similar issue on the Mandalay Bay tower tilting in Las Vegas. They discovered it when the windows wouldn't fit because the openings were not square. It got fixed with micro piles.
My mom used to work in a 23 story building (on the 22nd story). Every time I went up there and looked out the window, it seemed like the building was tilting down. I just chalked it up to my fear of falling or an optical illusion. I mean, the building didn't fall, right? Well, now I really wonder...maybe it was leaning. It was the second oldest 20+ story building in the city and the elevators were constantly stalling...
@S. or the floor is uneven which is more likely^^ hanging a weight on a rope and checking if it is parallel to the buidling would propably be the best solution
Bring a level next time you visit and check,
or put small ball on the floor, if ball roll, maybe building is tilt, if ball roll fast, maybe its biig problem :)
The plan for using 18 piles to bedrock is nearly complete. 6 piles are finished, the remaining 12 are also in but need tie bars fitted. The lean is now 29 inches (74 cm).
I live in the Bay Area, have worked in the City for years, and virtually everyone knows most of the financial district is built upon landfill going back to the Gold Rush era. It’s wild to me that any new structure being built there isn’t anchored into the bedrock. Like, we’re overdue for our next “big one”…
Yes, common knowledge by everyone. How many palms did this dev have to grease to get his pet engineer's 'cheaper' experiment approved?
@letsburn00 I'm sure that's the bay side
low income goernment houseing must go to bedrock saw video on high cost of homes..but this failure did not..I cannot stop laughing
😱😱😱
@Hovawartfreunde Well Japan has frequent earthquakes…. However that doesn’t explain THIS.
Truth is, during the foundation construction they dug open a sub-terrain well-spring. As they pump the well dry the soil will compact. Since it appears to be a massive well, the building is a goner and the city's construction approval is dubious.
Ted, you're dead wrong about that. Enjoy your next fillup. It's only going to get worse across the board. Energy costs will be going up.
@JACK LONDON Anyone is better than trump
4:16 - wait what!?! They didn’t drive the support pylons to bedrock on a clay foundation - that is madness! Here in Finland you can’t even build a one floor house that way. Clay gives out over time and it’s almost the same as building on top of a semi-liquid base, like pudding.
It’s fairly common to use large helical piles in dense soil. This is far from the only building to be built this way - with the vast majority having no issues.
The real issue here is probably the unexpected level of groundwater that needed to be pumped out and caused significant settling.
3:45 - ha , ha , ho ! that's not normal ! !
oh , u Fins are so - darn - perfect - ! pull-ezzeeee
@NikovK "clay must be different in Finland" Scary different. Google finland / norway "quick clay" or clay liquefaction, some pretty epic landslides. The ground spontaneously starts flowing. Like a river.
Same problem in Kentucky with that slick clay mud clay.
The fact that knowing how expensive a fix this is and they still waited 4 days against guidelines and now worsened the lean. Honestly I swear some people are just so brain dead to think that waiting the 4 days wouldn’t do anything
As someone who periodically has a nightmare about being in a building that falls over, let me just say: 😱
🎉
@Brett Champion 🤯🤯😳
i took a tour of the building and penthouse along with some other students (mostly civil engineers). they did not mention their tilt problem once haha
A couple of small not addressed in the video:
1. The original construction was supposed to be steel, not concrete. The change in materials made it a much heavier building than the foundation was intended to support.
2. Millennium Tower is built on land that was once part of the bay but was filled in during the mid to late 1800's. This type of land is tricky to build on in areas with earthquakes, even for much smaller structures.
tv documentary on high cost of low income government homes san francisco. i was intrigued why so high..well govt rules must go to bedrock period.. had lots of drilling machines in show.. But here is high cost no bedrock... are we laughing yet..low income homes better foundations..
“When the Leaning reach 1 meter, elevators and plumbing will stop functioning.”
How about just leave the building while you still can use the elevator to move your stuff out?
When you are sitting on a railroad track and hear the sound of train coming, the earlier you get out of the track the better your chances of survival
@Stubnitz come to think about it the issue want that another survey was needed but that a geologist should have been consulted about whether the new design was feasible with the geology.
@Cat O Call That's the design of the foundation, to which the geological survey is used as input.
@Stubnitz then who determines how a given structure interacts with the ground it's built on? Surely, someone has thought of this by now.
Excellent video and a story I heard about when it first started. It is AMAZING what construction engineers can do…..but though not even being close to even THINK about buying a home/condo in places like that, owners have basically ZERO chance of getting ANY profit whether they fix the tilt or not. I would be “slightly mad”…….good luck - seriously - to all!
Ever heard the expression-"too many cooks spoil the broth"This is a classic example-a problem rampant in today's world.A platoon of engineers collectively couldn't come to the conclusion that putting a building this size and weight onto a foundation not seated on bedrock was a bad idea.No doubt at the time they toasted how clever they were and how much money they saved.Not so funny now is it.The amazing thing is-I wouldn't be allowed to build a three storey house in the same situation.What an interesting world we live in...
They definitely had a dinner toasting the competition of this 😂😂 and now that they’ve more than likely spent the money by now…they’re in for some trouble
The engineers actually knew.
But the people funding the project and hoping to make money off the project just wanted to make as much money as possible.
I read it as “too many crooks” too…lol
It takes alot to make a stew. A pinch of salt and laughter too!
Too many crooks
I have a legit fear of buildings like this.
When B1M makes a video, it is either about something magnificent or something horrifying.
A beautiful building with nice views of San Francisco and the Bay Area. With that said one large earthquake could bring it down. That would worry me a lot with it leaning so much.
LEAN BUILDING💜💜💜
a lean mean swaying machine .
Instead of a mezzanine there's promethazine.
Lean juice 😈😈
I've heard the phrase "There's never enough time to do something right the first time, but always enough time to redo it." Seems to be the same case with money on this one.
🙏May the lives of all the people in and around that building stay safe … and let’s never forget what happened to that condominium building in South Florida 😞
I have only ever been to the top of a tall tower once - WTC in the 1970's and would never want to live in one - and reading about this drama just makes me more determined to stay out of them. Hopefully it will be fixed, but putting up something like this in an earthquake zone seems like madness !
I wouldn't be nervous in San Fran's TransAmerica building, which is anchored to bedrock and which did not drop a single pane of glass in the Loma Prieta earthquake. I am never nervous in the 100 story Hancock tower, or the Sears (Willis)Tower's 110 stories. High rises have always seemed to me to be a very trustworthy type of building. But I'd be nervous as hell in this building, as well as many other high rises built since the 70s. It appalls me that a 58 story building in San Francisco was not anchored to bedrock, and it seems to me that too many buildings built since 1980, especially, were built to the minimum, with every corner cut the builders could squeeze in, and with no concern as to the long-term viability of the building. What do THEY care- they're not building for long-term ownership, they're building to sell the units as quickly as possible and run with their profits.
I have been on a 49th floor and could feel the building swaying. Perfectly safe and normal, just disconcerting! If you lived there, you'd certainly get used to it.
They’re perfectly safe in an earthquake.
This appears to be a classic case-far too common these days-of arrogance, short sightedness, hubris, greed and wishful thinking, by the developers and the authorities who should have never allowed this building to be built.
You have it in a nutshell. And, as one 20th century thinker remarked, a man's time horizans define the range of his minds, and the limits of a civilization. The greatest period in this country was made by people who thought in terms of centuries, not an 18-year depreciation schedule, or the two years it takes to throw up a building that's already sold the minute the shovel strikes the dirt.
Glad I don't live around huge sky scrapers. I already had a fear of something falling out of one and crushing me, now I have the fear of the whole building crashing down on me
In Brazil, there’s a city that has a large quantity of tilted buildings, due to soil compression and stress on foundations. The city is called Santos, and if you ever look at the pictures (specially if taken from the shoreline) the leaning buildings are quite noticeable, even by walking on the streets you’ll notice how much they sunk. The funny thing is that a lot of people live in those buildings and don’t seem to care that much, some owners try to correct the tilt by leveling the floor using a thin layer of concrete.
Wow
@Logan I have not seen huge skyscrapers like in San Francisco in Amsterdam. I could have missed those areas when I was there but I did not see anything like I am seeing in SF.
Wow!
@Borealis i don't know, buildings in Santos are not very tall, just a few have more than 20 floors.
@decivox hmm I don't think so, it's a local problem specific to Santos, due to soil condidions.
The term piling is used. Actually, the video shows drilled piers being installed. Earlier news articles reported that this same type of foundation system (drilled piers) were used for new construction adjacent to this tower. Moreover, during the installation of the piers for the new construction, the drilled pier contractor was removing more soil from the cased holes then typical. In other words, soil (sandy fill) was caving into the cased holes as the casing was being advanced. This resulted in a loss of ground around the existing drilled piers for the Millennium Tower. Such loss of ground compromised the ability of the existing drilled piers to resist vertical and lateral loads causing tilt.
Don’t think so, this towering mistake one day will have to come down. Most probably this structure has been built over a former stream which wasn’t accurately mapped and later filled in with dirt. Especially the way the concrete in the basement is affected by corrosion is a definite sign of a much higher water pressure in the vicinity of this corrosion. Such pressure most possibly caused by seepage. In many cases the forces of seepage is much, much higher than what pumps can ever produce.
@plazasta whether reclaimed land or not, estuaries tend to have a lot of creeks through which water flows from higher elevations to the open water. Especially when ebb and flood tides also play a role in such an environment, the ‘topsoil’ of such an estuary will over time be cleaved by dozens or even hundreds little and bigger stream beds. The existence of such stream beds will imply that as soon as the land is reclaimed, the possibility of seepage through these old stream beds will almost always remain. Especially when they’re not diverted, let’s say, upstream. Or, otherwise said, diverted from the higher elevation to the lower laying surface of the reclaimed land. In that effect, as soon as groundwater accumulates inside the body of soils of the higher elevations, it will seek its way through the soil on a path of lowest resistance. Exactly those old stream beds form the excellent pathway for accumulated excess of groundwater to have its effect on soils which are part of reclaimed lands. This in fact means that such soils need to be researched thoroughly for possible subterranean streams, before these soils are ever considered to carry a load similar to the millennium tower. I humbly think such research either hasn’t been carried out, or, at the very least not thoroughly enough. To put such a structure on a sticky foundation is a rather odd one, especially when one considers the underlying bedrock isn’t that far away. Also, the solution to just adapt just one side of the foundation of this structure is yet another sign that the constructors are just asking for more trouble. San Fransisco definitely got its version of the Pisa tower, that’s for sure.
From what I read elsewhere, it probably wasn't a stream, it was the bay itself that used to stretch all the way there. That building stands on top of land reclaimed from the bay
When the tower opened in 2009, (1:38 m/s) everything was not fine. The expert panel, commissioned by then mayor, Edwin Lee & his 301 Mission Seismic Safety Committee, concluded that the deformation of the mat foundation occurred before 2009.
The project's Geotechnical Engineering Firm had issued its second settlement forecast.
Further, the Transbay Joint Powers Authority installed over a hundred crack monitoring gauges in the basement of the tower BEFORE the City issued the projects Certificate of Final Completion.
That picture of the concrete wall is terrifying. I'm not an engineer, but I hope they are seriously looking into that, unlike down in Miami.
In my hometown of Odesa, Ukraine we have a luxurious neighborhood Arcadia with around 40 buildings with hight differential between 16 and 25 stories, packed closely together on a small piece of land that is basically clay and sand. So people have concerns that all the neighborhood will collapse on itself. And actually there are cracks on the ground already.
I remember a similar issue with a condo in Seattle. They tore it down and rebuilt it. That will probably be the end result with this one too.
@Winston Smith#1997 If you're wise, fast-track tf out of SF.
@Kronos Thank you. I live in SF. The bums here are ruining this city. The sidewalks are covered in shite and IV needles.
The homeless here are not employable and they have no one to blame but themselves.
I work as a mechanic. I learned a trade and have no debt. If I can do it so can anyone else.
@majinnemesis *mighty
As I said before, I wouldn't beg others for life. Nor do I think my life is worth enough to carry on if I'm dumpster diving for breakfast.
Nobody owes you anything, nor anyone. This is the real world.
@Kronos i would love to see you talk so big if you were in their situation which can happen to you too,homeless people and other issues only exist because of people like you that act high and might and think it's a sin to help
Salesforce tower (the round building at 01:02 ) right next to it, is taller, weighs almost half as much and is anchored into bedrock. It's not tilting.
I love how B1M is one of a handful of YT channels where the arrow in the thumbnail is actually relevant to the video and not just random clickbait.
Is there any update on the millennium tower? I haven’t heard anything it seems like there would be a lot of news for either it going to fall over or it stabilizing
Nice video! We have one skyscraper here in New York, which is under construction but put on-hold, called One Seaport, that leaned just three inches north.
B1M should do a video regarding the several leaning buildings of Santos, Brazil
"It's safe."
"It's safe."
"It's still safe."
"It's safe."
News: "The Millennium Tower has collapsed."
The GLASS IS HOLDING UP THE TILT, OUCHA BUILDING..
@RandomShart It already happened in Miami
Lmao
For real!!
@GravitySmashify Look on Wikipedia for the 2021 Surfside Condominium Collapses. The indicator were much more than 10cm.
I get the strong feeling that all the experts are really just guessing. It's time to start clarifying responsibilities for when the tower inevitably fails.
I remember a similar issue in a deadly condo collapse in Northeast Miami Beach Florida last year. (Champlain Towers collapse).
Shoddy construction, crooked building inspectors, and decades of deferred maintenance caused that collapse, not foundation problems.
Got an idea for the architect…can shave off the side of the building that its leaning towards, from 1 corner to the 90º opposite corner in a circular fashion. Effectively making it into a half square, half circle from the top down view, and a right angle triangle from the side view. Actually pretty unique
My buddy does home renovations in SF and had to reach bedrock for all his projects. Can't believe a new built skyscraper did not need pilons to the bedrock lol!
A similar thing happened to The John Ross condo on Portland Oregon’s south waterfront.
I hadn’t seen those photos of the concrete spalling before, that almost worries me more than anything else. It’s much worse than that at the recently collapsed Champlain Tower South.
AND.....IT'S STILL OCCUPIED.
When that tragic event happened in Miami I was so scared to even get close to such huge buildings tbh, it's lame how these things can happen
@LexipMedia they would have to deconstruct it. Taking it apart piece by piece.
@W. Harrison I agree that engineering via political theorizing is a bad idea. Engineering is a discipline where the cold hard facts should always determine the outcome. But it appears that in this case a well-connected male civil engineer in a private company mis-designed a building and has never owned up to it. It is more typical in such situations that the bad engineering was approved via the influence of an "old boys network" than that a woman (and a feminist, if you are correct) was pressured into approving it. So, do you have evidence for this claim, apart from the general observation that San Francisco has ultra-progressive politics, which I will not dispute?
Note that I am agreeing with you here on some points, while questioning your premise that "San Francisco has ultra-progressive politics, therefore this particular error must be a product of those politics".
Would it be more cost-effective to deconstruct the tower instead of trying to fix it? It would be interesting to see the costs of deconstruction compared to repairs side-by-side.
@MiGujack3 You mean high-tech "Kens" with their easily gotten millions of $$ in bonuses from their tech startups.
@Jonathan Chicorli the building would be shut down and the area cleared long before that happened
@Jonathan Chicorli that won't happen.. stop watching TV..
They'll worry about it when it catastrophically fails and a bunch of people die.
i was thinking that too maybe it's better to just throw the building down and just build a new one before the whole thing falls off and kills a lot of people
The images from the basement/garage are absolutely scary. That kind of damage in such a short time...I would not want to spend even 1 night in that building. "The building remains safe" he says...yes, but it won't remain safe for long if this keeps up. And the cost to stabilize the situation could be half a billion?! How much to just build them another?!
It will remain safe until it collapses
heres an idea
make the other side sink a bit more
and make the already sinking side sink a bit less
if you /need/ 52 piles
but your only doing 18
then drop the opposite side a bit more to even it out
Could you imagine living in a building with this issue? I feel sorry for those people. I'm no building engineer but my guess is it will need to be torn down. Doesn't it seem the like the issues have been accelerating very quickly? Yes it's fun to "visit" and go up inside a building like this, but have to wonder if such buildings are really great for living in... As you go higher and higher, the elevator ride gets longer and longer. Think of the time spent going up and down, day after day, even with high speed elevators.
whether in fiction or reality, the Millennium tower can't seem to catch a break.
Dw brother, I get it.
I wanted to write a funny comment about how of course the Millennium Tower isn't safe since it's exploded several times. I think it'd go over people's heads though and I'd just make them worried for no reason.
I've chatted recently about this tower with my uncle who's a retired professor of civil engineering with a specialty in seismic activity. He didn't have a very high opinion of the engineer in charge of the fix and thinks they should have used the same technique that was used to secure the leaning tower of Pisa.
You mean Pizza?
@bcubed72 I went to high school and Jr. high with a dude named Peter Parker. I went to Jr. high with a gal named Barb Dwyer. Not making this up.
@Thomas R I believe they rolled a spicy meatball up along side, and wedged a chunk of parmesan under to prevent it rolling away.
@Stevie J Stay classy, San Francisco - Ron Burgundy
Boston's tallest buildings are also built on filled land. When the John Hancock building went up, water was driven into the basements of all the surrounding buildings. And then the windows started popping out.
Speaking of leaning towers, it would be so cool if you did a video on the Leaning tower of Piza
It is insane such a heavy skyscraper on top, but foundation pile ends are so far away from the bed rock, is it designed to sink annually ?? 😮
Such a warped civil engineering design can get go ahead permission from City Council speak a great deal about how San Fransico inner circle work in approving mega $$$$$$$$$ city construction projects. 🧐🧐
I recall working with a guy who worked on SF skyscrapers, in the design side. He said, this was a long time ago, that the footings had to be *49 foot deep.* Not 48 or 50, 49. This meant the building would sway in any earthquake. I assume that is why the footing never went right down to the bedrock.
@Boots
He was a highly intelligent engineer, not a dope with an altitude problem.
You assume wrong. Depth is dependent upon location, which depends upon if/how much fill is below.
Lot of other buildings are down to bedrock and have ridden out all the earthquakes for decades so far. Sounds like your friend was a pothead, 49 refers to the goldrush.
Oh dear. This is like that analogy of building without laying the proper foundations.
I thought people learned not to build big heavy buildings on soft material with the leaning tower of Pisa. I live not too far from San Francisco and it's been interesting to see this story develop
They knew the ground was soft, but had only estimated the tower to sink 10cm over the course of its entire life. So they kind of learned but not quite
@Provocateur SK evil? Why do you think they're evil? 😂
I love lean 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜
Evil people will do anything for moniez.
"The building is leaning over faster than planned and is sinking more than expected. The building is still safe."
"So would you live there, Mr. Hamburger?"
"What, are you crazy? Hell no!"
Not only has it tilted, but now it is sliding. A gap has developed between the building and it's parking garage, which is a separate structure.
5:30 You know everything is good when the chief engineer calculates on inches.
Had notice the same problem happening everywhere, local authorities need professionals to plan and advise contractors especially on new projects prior to the project approval. But sadly, most cities are developing with high-rise buildings constructed wo anticipation for future soil movement due to the neighboring construction works.
The greatest, safest and cheapest solution will be to completely remove the entire building piece by piece; compartmental deconstruction; just start taking it down. Avoid any other scenarios. 😉
My idea exactly. It's unsalvageable.
I am from San Francisco. I watched millennium tower get built as the “new kid on the block”. She was a beautiful tower and still is. It changed the entire look and feel of that area in downtown San Francisco. But for today, nobody would notice.. it’s surrounded by much taller new towers including the city’s’ tallest. Salesforce Tower. It broke my heart when I heard it was sinking. That was about 7 years ago now. It’s crazy how much the city has allowed it to sink. The elevator shafts are over 1.25 inches from the building. Which makes it illegal under California standard building code requirements. I’m surprised they have red tagged it and taken it down by now. They really must want to save this skyscraper as it was such a huge investment to San Francisco. The destruction would be horrific if this thing came down. The street below, Fremont, is constantly busy. Then there’s the brand new billion dollar Salesforce Bus Terminal with a public park right on top. Children that play at that park. And those who live / work in the neighboring towers. A catastrophe waiting to happen. So sad. I hope they can fix it, and fast!
@Kronos The thing about California population centers is that they are close to beaches. Sure, the people who live there may be the worst, but you don't really need to interact with that many people to visit a California beach and have a good time.
@Kronos true
@Kronos I disagree. This area of downtown is actually fairly clean. The park is beautiful and closes at 8pm everyday. Very little to no homeless on the streets below. This was one of my favorite parts of San Francisco before I moved to Bakersfield. (Cheaper housing, not because I didn’t like SF) I love San Francisco but it’s too expensive.
From reading various articles on this subject, it's my understanding that it cost 400 million dollars to build, was originally a steel structure, then became concrete which weighs significantly more, then the decision was made to save 4 million by not drilling into bedrock, a whopping 1% savings! According to this video, a 100 million dollar fix may now be 500 million?! More than the original cost! I wonder how much each floor weighs after occupied and modified, granite flooring, walls, concert grand pianos, heavy artwork, heavy furniture, heavy people, haha..... I hope these guys who made all of these poor decisions are still available for more projects.....
The weight of the total combined material that has been brought to that piece of land has to be putting great stress on the land itself . :O)
On March 14th of 2022 engineers learned that Rosie O’Donnell and Michael Moore each owned residences located at the top Northwest corner of the building. This explains the worsening lean and the cracks in the sidewalks and foundation. Engineers are relieved to have discovered the source of the problem and their solution is to simply relocate O’Donnell and Moore to the top Southeast corner of the building for the next seven years in order to lean it back the opposite direction.
The building's owner should put *rump in a SE unit for free. He'd skip out on any rent so ...
There are two other options that may be used. The first one is to to build a L-type support foundation on the side that is sinking. That will cost less than to dig to rock support. The second is to use the building that it is leaning towards to, to connect the two buildings at the highest point possible with a support structure very similar to sky walks, but in this case mainly to keep the tower from tilting any further.
@That one guy The connection only has to resist lateral movement, not vertical movement. It doesn't need to support the weight of the entire building, just the moment of the weight over something like a "center of support". Which, because it's such a tall, skinny tower, isn't all that great (compared to the total weight). (I realize I'm switching between weights and moments here, but in the interest of my not having to write 5 pages to treat this rigorously, please just take this comment as a shorthand for all of that.)
@That one guy I agree with what you are saying. That is why I said that proper calculations must done to cater for the weight of the building, the strength of raw-bar, and concrete. The first suggestion that I placed suggested that the support, similar to a book stand be placed on the outside of the tower where proper drilling, digging can be done easily without trying to work underneath the building. Depending on the weight of the building, the size of the platform could be calculated, i.e. the breadth, length, height, depth and weight and with additional concrete foundation columns at the far end of the book stand, you could achieve your goal. Hopes this makes sense to you.
@frank nilson but the building isn’t sinking because it’s tilting, it’s tilting because it’s sinking. A connection to another building would have to be able to hold the weight of an entire building sinking into the ground.
@That one guy The first method will work like a book stand that keeps the books in place. If the calculations and concrete and steel support are done properly it will work. The second method is basically the same, as the building next to it is that book stand that is already fixed, and with a proper support as high and strong as possible will keep the tower from tilting. Without pressure on the foundation then in both cases, the ground will not sink as much unless the soil is very acidic which could destroy any rock formations such as dolomite.
That doesn’t fix the sinking
60cm doesn’t sound like much, until you put that at the top of a tower.
Also, it’s been said, but I’m astounded they didn’t go into bedrock…
This subject is dramatic, but the presentation brings it into another level. I am on the edge throughout the whole video! Incredible job on the B1M team!
ME TWO !!!. I WAS AT THE EDGE OF MY CHAIR IN MY SEAT OF MY PANTS THE WHOLE TIME, TO THE POINT IM TRAUMATIZED.....FOR LIFE !!
Could there be a counterbalance put on the top that could offset some of the tilt?
They should account for more lean tolerance in their design in that case. Which seems like the problem in this instance, especially when you know it was designed to the mm in a 3d CAD software.
They should let it tilt even more so that it is has at least 4.5 degrees of tilt, i.e. a noticeable lean. The tower could then become a tourist attraction - the Leaning Tower of San Francisco.
Every upload is interesting and Fred Mills has a great voice for doco type material, really enjoy your channel...kudos
That steel looked rusty already, i would think they might have a high salt water table problem also, most likely used volclay swelltite waterproofing in the basement, salt water will cause this type of system to fail in a short time, this is a whole other problem oO
Building Integrity has a series on the Millennium Tower with more to come. Another problem is the foundation mat is dishing.
The newest wrinkle in the Millennium Tower debacle is that it is now sliding horizontally. It sits on a giant concrete coaster and it is beginning to walk.
You didn’t mention the key fact that the tower is built out of concrete and not the typical steel bar construction. It is one of the tallest and heaviest concrete buildings in the world as I understand it. This is why it has had problems.
I remember when I was in high school in 1974, Irwin Allen, known as the Master of Disaster, in his chain of disaster movies came out with with THE TOWERING INFERNO about a San Francisco skyscraper in which corners were cut. I'm thinking maybe I should shop a movie script around about a tilting building in San Francisco. It could be called the Founder Building, but in some foreboading wind keeps pulling a strip off the sign so it reads the Flounder Building. The building would be next to a major transit hub generating a cascading disaster. Those invested in the building would likely buy up the rights from me to make sure it disappears.
There you Go ! You got a script.!
Can you imagine working there? You push your office chair in when you stand up, and it rolls back at you... You push the drawer in and it opens back up again. That would drive me nuts.
I wonder if they have considered stabilisation by using injection grouting to stabilise the ground and foundations ? This was used by Crossrail engineers while tunneling in London to stablise buildings in the vicinity of the project and it is also in an area of clay soil. just a thought.
After watching “Building Integrity” channel’s assessment it would have only cost an additional 4 million to go to bedrock during the initial construction.
The plumbing issue is something I hadn’t considered- I would think it would put a strain on the connection point between the city sewer, electrical, gas, and water mains as well. Curious at what point they will need to redo those connections to compensate for lean
@Bernd Jendrissek Here's what I'm saying;
After your P trap, the pipe is supposed to slope away, so that water (or debris) can be washed away. Slope it the wrong way and everything stays stuck in the P trap. How much stuff goes down the kitchen sink? Bathroom sink?
You ever install a kitchen? I have. Let's say you have your 2" or 1.5" pipe sloped the wrong way, behind the sink, running along the wall, until it gets to the main.
Unless you have access to the wall from the other side, you are pulling off countertops, removing cabinets THEN breaking the drywall to fix the slope, then re-installing it.
Every try to remove granite? Without breaking it? With the sink cut? Do you know how easy it breaks?
What if the sink is in an island and the drain goes down into the floor? Remove cabinet, break tile?
What a mess....
@frankpinmtl Ok but opening up drywall is nothing compared to having to open up masonry let alone concrete (this is a skyscraper we're talking about). I don't know about San Francisco but in my city large buildings' sewer systems are generally in accessible places, although there may be short sections hidden behind drywall.
And still, for the flow to reverse, a building's lean would have to exceed the 1:50 gradient that's the lower limit for sewer pipes (and more likely something like 1:20).
@Bernd Jendrissek attached to walls ?
if you mean behind the drywall, then yes, they are attached to walls. All electrical and plumbing is 'attached to walls' behind the drywall and usually in the middle of the framing.
@frankpinmtl (Clean) water supply is pressurized, so you must be talking about sewer lines. Aren't those usually attached to walls and not embedded in them?
@Bernd Jendrissek So let's say the plumbing is run a certain way, with a slope to allow the natural gravity to flow the water. Tilt a building in the other direction, all of a sudden your water doesn't flow down the pipes, but back up
And I was quite proud of how I managed to straighten a seriously leaning concrete block wall on my property through the use of a bottle jack...
Probably should be, it's gonna take a hell of a lot more than one man to stabilize an entire skyscraper
Im pretty sure the pile depth was based on the soil test and it showed it was safe. however sometimes, you need to dig more LOL
I live in SoCal, so I know earthquakes. I can't imagine, and don't want to know, but it must be an adventure living in that tower.
the only thing i get from this is to never let a guy named Hamburger plan your skyscraper
I spent 6 months in San Francisco over a 7 + 3 year duration + other visits. I can't believe any builder of a skyscraper would not anchor the building supports to the bedrock, given the earthquake issues. All you had to do was read the paper/Guardian or talk to somebody about the ever-present issues associated with building retrofits, seismic stability of particular regions, and building single family homes on the equivalent of "floating pads".
Because I am a project manager, have read numerous case studies, along with reading the other comments, I am inclined to think that the so called extra time needed to anchor the support of the building was more of an issue than the cost, but perhaps I am mistaken.
@JAE X Well, South not geographically but what is considered the country counties full of oddly talking people, beef burger joints, cheap bars, farms, and pickups.
@Kronos Yeah. This was Mississippi, so…
@JAE X That's just the West Coast. Hate that place. If I had to choose, I'd go Southern State.
@Kronos I promise you there are a few hundred uninsured Ferraris driving around the US even as I write this. The flashy clothes / no underwear crowd are always with us.
During my career in financial services, I learned that a fancy car was a really good indicator of being in bad financial shape.
in many cases for smaller buildings, you really don't need it. But the Millenium tower is both in the top 5 tallest buildings and the only really tall building made of concrete (oh, that was a late change, the foundation was already set for a steel frame...no need to recalculate). So this was a damn easy call. Even so many even medium-to-tallish building will go down to the bedrock for extra safety and just to have margin of error.
Had no idea you can extend foundations on a high rise after built. Very interesting I wonder how the do it.
Lots of digging i would imagine
It's not that bad, there are two towers in Madrid that lean 14,3º each and they are very safe and habitable.
Reminds me of an over 2000-year-old story about building a house on sand or rock. They should have anchored to bedrock from day 1
Ah! I didn't see your post before I made mine.
Just to be clear, Ron is the engineer of the fix for the tower, and not the original engineer of the tower itself.
Also Ron is great - big fan
It's astonishing how skyscrapers a century old seemed to have been better planned and built
It's insane that the support structure was not dug down into the bedrock in the first place
@Provocateur SK Greed is a factor. But greed is a factor regardless of economic system.
@Provocateur SK what
Remember the building that collapsed in Surfside, Florida? They kept saying it was safe. When someone tells you there's no "immediate danger", that's when you need to start running for the hills.
Dubai used some inland-origin desert sand to create land reclaimation but changed to sands from the sea because inland-origin sand is unstable. However, it is good how they showed what can be done as having unstable sand encourages the reclaimed to be used for something that is not buildings (such as crops, like coconut, etc.). The inland-origin sand is abundant but the places in the sea you might put it are not so much. Heavy railway for inland-origin desert sand, one day could restore permafrost eroded land _(but it is only part of the "ingredients", such as rock)._
My comment has no hate in it and I do no harm. I am not appalled or afraid, boasting or envying or complaining... Just saying. Psalms23: Giving thanks and praise to the Lord and peace and love.
“See, the problem is that other building pumping out groundwater.”
Okay cool. I also noticed the garage walls are crumbling because of groundwater.
“What? Sorry you’re breaking up.”
**Call ended**