SF Business Times:
"Less is more: Engineers behind Millennium Tower fix have a new strategy"
New calculations show piles can bear more weight than was previously known — an estimated 1 million pounds, per Hamburger’s letter, up from 800,000. Crews will be able to accomplish the objectives of the previously planned retrofit with the reduced number of piles, Hamburger wrote,
though he noted that the building’s tilt would not be corrected as much as had been previously predicted.
There are new photos on
[URL unfurl="true"]http://lbkarp.com[/url]
- The 3rd to last photo shows a center bar in the pile much larger in diameter than the #18 high strength threaded bar previously proposed.
The Dan Brown & Associates letter from 23 November 2021 is also at
lbkarp.com.
SG&H was the waterproofing consultant for the Millennium Tower project and the cracking in the bottom levels of the parking garage, immediately adjacent to the tower/podium shoring wall, will likely remain a chronic problem for the Millennium HOA. I'm quite certain the main water leakage/cracking is in the north & west walls of the lower parking levels. The parking garage walls incorporated an integral waterproofing admixture.
The tower/podium shoring wall in this area has two sections where the CDSM shoring wall has soldier piles at 2.5 ft OC. This location was troublesome early in the project, with water seeping into the excavation while the tie-back work was going on.
Beginning in Nov-2006 Surveyor, Martin M. Ron Assoc. began monitoring the Trestle erected to facilitate excavation of the Podium/Mid-Rise. From Nov-2006 to Jun-2007(time letter was written) they recorded continuing uplift of the trestle of 1-7/8 to 2-1/4 inches across the trestle.
I'm not sure how much basal heave is acceptable but the construction scheme of tying the tower to the shoring wall certainly complicates things. Then there is the uplift of the Mid-Rise on the corner of Mission St. & Beale St., as shown in an NBC image from late 2016. The uplift of the Mid-Rise was just noticeable in Apr 2011 (Google StreetView) and continues slowly over time. It currently looks to be about where it was in 2016.
The tower and the shoring wall are just a large shovel.