Original Cost to Build to Bedrock for Tower Like Millennium Put at Just $4 Million
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ต.ค. 2021
- Testimony in the now-settled litigation over the Millennium Tower reveals that one engineer on the nearby public transit project estimated anchoring a tower like the now sinking and tilting Millennium to bedrock would have cost about $4 million more. Jaxon Van Derbeken reports.
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Incompetence at its finest. Who are the developers and why are we paying for the repair?
Follow the money
You're paying because you want that building 😂
You are paying for it because some corrupt politician received his monthly donation to sign paperwork saying that the taxpayers would pay for it out of the kindness of their hearts
@@ReijiMoritsugu Actually it’s called public safety. Lawsuits shall follow against developers.
Here is how you do it... create a corporation just for this project. Take the money, build the building as cheap as possible. When project complete, take all money from corporation out, declare bankruptcy to get rid of any pesky loans and debts you owe your honest vendors, dissolve corporation. A few years later, lawsuits have no one to sue, because company no longer exists.
Take it down! Taxpayers shouldn’t be paying for this disaster!
But your local politicians already got bribed. Caught caught political contributions
It may come down on its own before they decide to TAKE it down!
I dont think they really have another option at this point since you cant just fix this in any tangible way. I am really amazed at the childish way adults point fingers at issues and seem to have no clue about reality. That, is becoming an epidemic.
why - its tourist attraction , just secure it and make it earthquake safe and you got your own pisa tower
we do not care
So they went the cheap route while building a “luxury” high rise
Good one here!
Verdade.
Sometimes when you closely at so called luxury homes you will be surprised they are smoke and mirrors A lot of people are to cheap to do the job right
The only thing luxury in those places is the price and the veneer.
I thought this was a Trump building, lol.
Madness. What else could it be called? The taxpayers should not have to pay a penny of this.The developer and the engineering firm that designed the foundation need to be sued. That building may need to be deconstructed.
It is not our place to question authority. Keep your eyes lowered and your mouth shut. If the powers want to give illegal immigrants $450,000 cash don't say a word.
and then joe whispers "pay your fair share...pay your fair share" CREEPY
Why are tax payers responsible for this? It should be the builder, the bank that financed the project, the owners of the units and the home insurance companies of the building/homeowners. Why the F are tax payers paying for this?!
Because its castratfornia
Trans bay is a public company and they are a public transit and Housing program that do stuff like this
The developers are Democrats.
Who at San Francisco's DBI was given the "white envelope" to let this oversite pass by?
Yes correct !!!!!!
WHY
I thought all sky scrapers were built to bedrock especially in an earthquake zone. Wow!
perhaps they should face jailtime
There are others in SF not built into bedrock, but they weigh much less. This is a very heavy structure.
@@sanfrancisco89 the cost more than $4million go ahead believe everything from someone who reads a teleprompter
@@antbee520 WTF are you talking about teleprompters? I know the building in my city and how most were built. I am not saying they shouldn't have spent the money, especially when they build on the original shoreline.
The foundations are designed by the structural engineers. There are many, many ways to constructy very large buildings on crappy soil.
$150+ to fix a $4 million dollar problem. The engineering firms that signed off on it should be BLASTED and loose their license.
If you put clowns in charge of money then expect a circus🇬🇧
🤣I like that
Just like government.
Period
Not a clown but a corrupt politician
Perfect. Gonna use that. Thanks, mate. 😎👍🏼
There's only one correct way to fix this mess, begin dismantling the structure from the top down, immediately. Any way you look at it, the tower's days are numbered.
Ok
Yes. Ultimately less expensive than what will be the failed "fix".
EXACTLY, Especially if government is now involved, just kill it. It will always be half assed, no matter what...
Sealed settlements of this nature should not be allowed when we are talking about public money.
and a very likely immense tragedy
And just why is this public money?
@@larrysorenson4789 I don't think it should have been, but it was public money from the Transbay project used to settle. I think they did it because it's better to lose little than lose big.
@@bengaltiger96 how about allowing all your fellow citizens vote on whether or not they want to buy the facility, tear it down and then sell the empty lot? That is the democratic way, is it not?
And if the cote was “no”, then what? No, the citizens were put between a rock and a hard place. There can be no winners and someone (the developer) should be made to pay dearly for this mess. The best that the citizens can hope for is that it is over quickly (5 years?) so that you all can move on.
What a shame.
Knew it was the bean counters that entered into the decision. Seen it many times in my engineering career. Always said - Who thinks it's cheaper to do it over again than to do it right in the first place.
Repairing and adding onto an ocean pier where I live. First repair came apart with last hurricane. Home owners paying $10,000 each for this latest. The company (not the previous company) presented how the pilings would be placed into the bedrock this time. I'm not sure the state ever sent someone to see if built to code. Pretty sure the state is controlled by profiteers. Departments for Code enforcement have very few staff now. The area dodged the hurricane bullet this year. Time will tell.
Cost is ALWAYS a factor in EVERY construction project.
Isn't there an engineer who signed off on this type foundation though?
Been there, done that ! ALWAYS DOCUMENT because these bastards will try to blame you for not listening to your advice !
The tower is literally floating on a 10ft thick concrete pad with various pylons extending into the sand/reclaimed bay mud. The building's weight is was increased drastically when they decided to add more concrete to the building's construction. It's only a matter of time before it tilts beyond recovery.
I honestly can't wait. The only thing more satisfying to watch would be a giant tsunami washing the entirety of San Francisco into the Pacific Ocean.
@@jt8251 Boy, you really hate it, don't you?
I learned that with Malcolm drilling co that we bolt down building to bedrock to prevent them from floating. Also tall skyscrapers have roots like trees called tieback at all different
@@jt8251 were you born with that kind of hatred or is it something you work on day by day?
The new Leaning Tower of Pizza
Thank you NBC Bay area for keeping us up to date on the Millennium Tower sinking issue in San Francisco. Very informative. Please keep up the great work. Saving 4 million or let's say 6 or 8 million by cutting corners have resulted in a very unstable building. It's almost like people are just waiting to collect their insurance. I hope the insurance company will see this as a losing situation and not renew any home insurance policies for the owners. If the owners lost their policies, that might force people to get out and then the city can demolish this failure and symbol of corporate mismanagement and greed. Keep us inform. The more they drive the pillars down, the more disturbance they will cause and this building will crumble or the foundation will continue to warp and twist until the structure is declared uninhabitable/unsafe.
The leaning tower of Frisco. This could be a new tourist attraction!
You guys should ask SFDepartment of Building Inspection why the heck it was approved in the first place. why the h taxpayer’s money will be use to fix this
the Millenium won't pay for it so now the city has no choice but to foot the bill: Cause if the building falls so many other buildings will be damaged and hundreds will die.
The Millenium is responsible for f'n over the tax payers.
@@argoneonoble Have u heard the walter wong scandal with nuru? My point being SFDBI should be investigated regarding this matter, city is covering their A$& by using tax payers money to fix this thing
@@argoneonoble the city approved it, they share responsibility.
NEWSOM was the mayor they were his appointees
@@dfunk2325 Exactly,
So the “cost so far to clean up the Millennium mess”, per apartment, is $500,000?
Consider the Condo collapse in Florida. Issues with original build and owners simply unable or refusing to pay the huge amount to repair. Fault of construction passed on to people who trusted it would be safe. Elected representatives at all levels have decimated the departments that monitor CODE. Many elected officials from the building industry and others given favors to look the other way. Even when Departments report a problem it's usually ignored by those elected to protect and serve.
Why is taxpayers paying this?
because the taxpayers out there allow it
The person who decided to go the cheaper route should be paying 100% of the costs to correct.
Developers should be on the hook for all of it.
Tear the MT down, as it stands, it's dangerous. It's hard to believe it was allowed to be built to begin with.
The government in the US leaves the poor screwed, in most areas there are no sidewalks even for the poor, no health insurance, or anything.
But when the rich make a mistake the government quickly bails them out. We do have socialism here in the US. We have socialism for the rich.
Yup! It seems in Usa poor is very poor and Rich is very rich. Not much in the middle i guess?
The Milenium Tower represents SF in so many ways..... It's an absolute disaster......
San Francisco is a major part of making California the 5th largest economy in the world so shove it up yer arse.
@Paul R. Nelson With Britain going down the tubes post-Brexit, CA could be the 4th largest economy in the world soon, and with a reasonably balanced budget and less comparative debt.
@@RayThackeray but we have the most homeless in the country by far, And inter-related economies don’t work like that, a lot of the commerce California enjoys it with neighboring states that did not occur if you were our own country so that comparison of California being until economy is stupid
@@andrewwong8932 Try again with your comment but this time in English.
@@RayThackeray 🎻
Go figure, going the short route to build a luxury building In a populated area to save 4 million dollars, only to have it sink/tilt putting residents and the public at risk. Those responsible for the initial design/build should go to prison for what they've done. I see no upside to this engineering disaster.......
Willing to endanger your life is one thing, but your children or members of the public is another. No way that thing is gonna last 100 years.
I doubtt prison is in anyone's future but complete loss of licensing and accreditation with a lifetime ban should be minimum
I would bet that just ONE of the units are 4 million dollars, just to put it into perspective.
Once again, taxpayer funded corporate bailouts for the rich, rugged screw-you-when-you're-down individualism for the rest. Welcome to American "capitalism"
So much hypocrisy in this country.
The foundation rested on those piles was overloaded beyond the maximum calculated weight allowed, how is that even possible it can be approved by city in the first place?? It is mind boggling. 🙄
can taxpayers sue the city & the developers? we didn't ask for this...at all
Yes it's their F-Up !
Eventually it'll sink to bedrock, then it'll be 24 floors high instead of 58.
Love it! 🤣🤣🤣👍
no, it'll be 24 floors above ground and 34 below. Talk about a "room with a view"
They'll have subterranean units. Nice and cool the summer.
The sad part about all of this. Is the city and state approved the plans. How much did some pocket to do so.
Good question and I'm thinking the same thing.
Why build it perfect when you can fix it later for 45 times the cost?
Avoiding corporate costs and relying on government money to foot the bill…well that’s just the American way. 🎆 🇺🇸🎉
Hope the building sits empty soon.
Why is any high rise in SF permitted for construction without a plan to drill down to bedrock?
Corruption
Corruption of the permit process that has the potential to kill hundreds if not thousands of people depending on if and when the building fails. There should be an investigation ! Guilty heads should roll before incident by standards
Because the design is the engineers decision, not some bureaucrats. How’d you like to discover that because of some well intended but poorly written mandate, you need to drill 200 feet to bedrock to support your garage addition?
Wait, taxpayers are paying for the repairs? And how much to just tear it down?
$20M just to tear it down
About 10 years ago I fellow I knew who worked for years to buy and build a beautiful home decided to sell it. When I asked them why are you selling it. He turned around to me and says why do I need this big home for me and my wife. He said my son is already married and moved out. Why do I need this house and headaches to maintain it with empty rooms all over the place. He then said what do I need to live per day one steak I don't need all of this. And he said I'm probably going to buy a small house like you he said or maybe buy a condo and live simple without the headaches and it stresses in life to maintain a high standard of living and he was so right. But look how people live today grasping for the dollar like that's the only thing that gives meaning to life. No God, no nothing. Just how they can make the most money instead of living a simple life. The band The Fall has a song called "the age of greed" which accurately defines what is going on in the world today.
How did regulations not catch this? If it was a personal home remodel, the permits and red tape would be a nightmare. Crazy!
@Hot Toymania totally
Most of Japan's skyscraper are not anchored to bedrock either. They construct the building to be light with as little concrete as possible for the superstructure and then create a lot of separated concrete lumps underneath the ground that distributes the weight to the entire floor space with stilts that acts as pillars creating a huge floating roly-poly object that may tilt and swing but always returning to it's upright position.
The Foundation slab is underdesigned (dishing). The pile design failed already. The foundation was designed to support a lighter steel bldg and not a concrete bldg.
The solution; pilings to bedrock that will transfer the weak link to the foundation slab.
The best solution from the public and owner safety perspective would be to drive piles into bedrock and take say 10 floors off the top of the building to reduce weight or simply knock it down. The short term political and economic solution will be to drive in new pilings outside the perimeter of the bldg and wait for the foundation to start cracking and then seek another short term fix. Kicking the can down the road brings all the parties closer to retirement.
I don’t think taxpayers should have to pay a penny, let the developers absorb the loss. It’s just unbelievably penny-wise, pound foolish.
unfortunately, they'll just declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy and the taxpayers will get the bill anyways. Developers already hid their money offshore. It pays to be rich because you can get the best lawyers and accountants.
4 million dollars??!! That's all??!!! I'm thinking all these years that it was millions!! Regardless of cost, it should've been done!!
Cheaper is more expensive
This tower is fast becoming my favorite soap opera
WTF? TAXPAYERS ARE PAYING?
they always do. besides, the only cornerstone a democrat ever laid that will never sink an inch is their tax and spend philosophy. ask yourself why taxpayers will even vote yes to build a stadium for a billionaire, too. obviously, the typical person -- or at least the average city dwelling idiot -- should not be entrusted with voting.
@@manlymcstud8588 Wow, you do recognize your fascist tendencies, don't you? But you're right about idiotic voters and their gullibility... but extends to Republicans as well.
@@manlymcstud8588 all this proves is that Republicans and Democrats are on the same team. They always were.
Prevention costs always are far less then cleanup costs
Why were they even allowed to this tower this way? I really think there needs to be an investigation as to how this was allowed.
The city approved the plan to build this thing incorrectly. That is the real problem. They should have known the issues as they became obvious and halted construction. This is why every step of construction is subject to inspection and approval.
If the foundation is inadequate it would seem to make more sense to start at the top. Dismantle however many floors are needed until the foundation can actually support the load. It would not be cheap but you may be able to salvage part of the building. Attempting to stabilize a foundation on something this tall that is already leaning sounds dangerous. Working with a small margin of error they could lose the whole thing and wipe out a portion of the neighborhood also.
“Things come up like that all the time, and you just fix it”
We need that man as President. No blame game nonsense, no political insertions, no self-aggrandizing. Just sees a job to do and demands that it be done, and done right. We sorely need more of that in this country.
Seems this 4 million was a shortcut they shouldnt have taken. It also seems officials are all at fault for letting realtors sell innocent people these worthless properties, since it was sinking before it was completed
I can't think of a city more deserving !
This is a well crafted video. The information was well organized and clearly presented. Thank you
Another reason to abolish HOAs
On the other hand, the Bay Bridge is world-class.
Why do all the geo engineers look like they're on the verge of death
Probably takes a long time to gain that level of experience.
The best are pretty old, but they have the most experience. Who wants to hear from a 22-year old on a problem like this?
Good question: Because we don't encourage young people to go into math and sciences to become engineers (unless of course you grow up in India and the Middle East). But mostly it's because it takes decades to accumulate the expertise to do what these guys and gals do. Be gad their still around.
@@kimberlyperrotis8962 No, I sure don't! Give me the lived experience any time...
All the younger people just want to do Instagram and TickTock instead of studying boring science stuff to, you know , make buildings safer ‘n crap.
On the plus side there is bedrock. With the building in place it might cost a hundred million to create new underpinnings that can support the ten foot thick “floating” slab and stabilize the building. Who pays? Not the taxpsyers, i hope. But this is California and if there were serious and well connected players in the deal you can expect that the taxpayers will participate.
California has refused to turn over the remaining 3.8 billion dollars that they still have from
But if they built it correctly, it wouldn’t be so much fun!
Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra , Shaka when the walls fell
Well done ❤
Often times, you can "go cheap" and get away with it. This time, they didn't.
The developers went engineering shopping and found a firm who had no clue about bay sediments the result is save 4 million then and pay 400 million now.
Actually, the building is not salvageable, take off the top half.
Follow the money, check out who sign off these projects from the city hall.
Because this big thing is leaning if there are some major winds pushing in the direction of the lien will it fall?
They cut costs for profit, and now the building is Surfside 2.0.
So They decided to save from the foundation of the building!
Pretty smart job folks!
The City of Oakland had us take down small a roof top deck they claimed was non permitted, when they issued the code violation they said nothing about it previously being inspected almost 35 years ago, and the previous owner did nothing, the violation just went away for 35 years???? My response to the Oakland’s Ethics Department, and City Council, and the Building Department cites “why would they would wait so long to follow up on something like this”, not that anyone took any money, we just assumed the inspector(s) was being nice about the situation…. Ask me if I have any legal recourse for the City Of Oakland’s Building & Inspections Department……???
That thing is a time bomb
Damn straight.
As they say, “You get what you pay for.”
In the long run it’s going to cost you more down the road as we see here.
Way to simplistic of a comment. Many times new, innovative and less costly concepts work out just fine. Apparently, this one did not
Absolutely criminal. That developer should never be allowed to build anything ever again, not even a doghouse.
Why aren t the city inspectors who approved this in the first place being held accountable? How about the contractor?? Why is the taxpayer paying for this???
Wait - Are we saying there is no *law* that requires skyscrapers to be supported by bedrock? Oh Dear Lord...
I would fill the basement with gravel around mechanical jacks that could be continually adjusted and fitted against the foundation/support beams (to be easily reinforced, if necessary) at street level from bellow. The jacks would be imbedded in the gravel. (If did it right, you could literally elevate the building, grade the gravel to spec, and lower it back down onto the gravel bed, like the Marriott hotel a few blocks away, a al Frank Lloyd Wright.) The basement would be rendered useless, as it should be. End of story. Very (relatively) simple/cheap fix. This building, (and no high-rise) should ever have a basement in the first place (especially on land fill). It's fueled by greed and a dash of machismo. Greed, greed, greed. The City was paid off. I guarantee it.
Wait... We are paying the litigation but that may be paid back in this sealed settlement agreement?!? Isnt that siphoning money from the tax payers for a fee that is already being paid??? How exactly does this work without looking like outright taxpayer fraud?
Unbelievable. The city needs to held fully liable. So that they never fail to do their jobs again.
Someone should go to jail!
reaching bedrock is a minimum for commercial. just like 4 foot residential to get past the freeze/heave point. should be 10X. based on what they charge for rent, that is in line
Seeing the "Shangri-La" in Vancouver go to bedrock before the build (big const. equip. looked like Tinker Toys down there from land level) I'm FLABBERGASTED that in, OF ALL PLACES, San Fransisco??!!!! (We don't have earthquake faults of any real consequence in BC cities) I can't believe it.
The 100 million they are spending now is not fixing anything.
You cannot fix something like this
You have to at the least reduce the height of the building to slow it down but it will keep sinking
This is not incompetence. It is insanity caused by greed.
It's just a matter of time for this building to come down!!! May God protect the people around when it happens!!!
when the tilt causes the elevators to stop working, the residents will have a nice climb up the stairs to their luxury suites.
if this was REAL news, the question they would be asking is why the Civil Engineer working for the city who allowed this to be permitted is not being criminally prosecuted.
.
what's happening now is THE BEST CASE SCENARIO.
.
what happens in the case of an earthquake? can you say "Soil Liquefaction"? i knew you could.
.
if there is ANY kind of a tremblor before this building gets attached to bedrock, this whole damn thing is coming down and when it does it's going to smash a lot of other shit with it.
is there anything in place in S.F. To make sure this does not happen again? has anyone in the city planning department learned anything?
Original design called for steel and glass, and they did not alter the foundation, but in order to armageddon-proof it, they opted for concrete??? W O W.
Classic case of cheaping out and hoping nothing will go wrong
Sue them
Imagine what else they cut corners on.
Tax payers need to do class action lawsuit
What does the HOA have anything to do with the developed foundation?
Yes, I wondered that as well.
I wouldn’t want to be in that building during an earthquake and subsequent liquefaction! Hello from New Zealand, the shaky islands
This is exactly why you don't trust corporations to follow the rules and why having lax-laws in areas of the country is a really bad idea. They won't do the right thing, even when they have the money to do so. I know, I worked for one of the largest companies and they posted record profits while cutting corners and NOT doing the right thing, you can't leave it open to them and expect businesses whose only goal is to make money to make things right and not cheap out in critical safety areas.
I hope never to read it comes down. What would happen to the buildings around it? Horribly, we have have seen what collapsing buildings do to those around them. I can only imagine the pre-finger pointing plans that have begun.
That's four million dollars less in executive bonuses.
I am on the side of "let's demolish this structure before it collapses".
Let the designers, engineers, contractors and developers decide what to do and then to PAY FOR IT!
One earthquake and that tower might come down. I'm no engineer but: building's center of gravity is already off balance? If shaken too hard would it fall to the side its already leaning? how many city blocks will be flatten? how many people? This people are gambling thousands of lives.
NOW you tell us.......
Just imagine all the kick backs the developer paid to Newsom Supervisors and SF city inspectors!
We'll probably never know about those though.
No one will be held responsible.
No one will be punished.
No one will be paying for it
Except the victims of this latest blunder
This is America these days.
Broken stuff , your wallet fleeced.
There are apartments in that tower that cost more than building to the bedrock.
Correction: its not "ancient mud". It's landfill. That's the problem.
How deep is it to bedrock for the transportation hub? Is it possible that the building is on a downslope side of that bedrock making it even hairier?
I thought we figured out not to build buildings on soft material 900 years ago with the leaning tower of Pisa
About $10,000 worth of dynamite will take care of that problem.
I don't understand how anyone would permit a concrete high-rise in earthquake country, let alone in an area subject to liquefaction and it's unimaginable that it would be permitted that way WITHOUT piles to the bedrock. My dear friends in San Fransisco, this tower is going to fall during the first noteworthy earthquake and I wouldn't get anywhere near it at any time for any reason. If you think these after-construction measures to shore things up are expensive, just wait until you see how much it's going to cost when the damn thing falls, especially in the human lives that will be lost. This will be like that Surfside collapse but in California where we know about the dangers to our buildings both from liquefaction/settlement and earthquakes. I live in California too and we had to build a better foundation to put up a damn 6 foot block wall that only has to support its own weight with or without an earthquake and/or high winds.