![]() ![]() Also, since primary and secondary consolidation and can take years, it’s hard to know exactly when the tower will stop sinking. However, Millennium Tower has already sunk over three times more than its total anticipated settlement. Some degree of settlement is acceptable for a new building, and the geotechnical engineer typically provides an accurate calculation for anticipated movement well in advance of construction. Any current movement at Millennium Tower is probably due to primary or secondary consolidation. This leads to a further reduction in volume and even more settlement. In the final stage, called secondary consolidation, soil particles within the clay layer reorganize themselves to adjust to the newly dry, highly compressed state. The second stage is called primary consolidation, wherein all the excess water in the clay is forced out, resulting in a decrease in the volume of the clay and a further settlement of the building. This process typically occurs in three broad stages: In the first stage of settlement, the soil deflects elastically, squishing as a result of the new compressive forces that have been applied to it. However, this kind of foundation system relies on the stiffness of relatively weak clay, meaning that the building will most likely undergo some settlement. If you’ve ever hammered a tent stake in place, then you’ve essentially driven a tiny friction pile: the stake isn’t sitting on bedrock, but it can resist vertical loads (in compression or tension) and lateral loads all the same. The friction at the pile-soil interface causes the pile to resist being pushed down further or being pulled out. When a pile is driven or drilled into clay or sand, the soil presses against the newly introduced member. 14″ square piles can be seen surrounded by the concrete pile cap While an end-bearing pile transmits loads directly into bedrock, a friction pile transfers loads through friction into layers of softer soil. ![]() A 10 foot thick concrete mat was then built across the tops of these piles to serve as a solid base for the tower’s superstructure. Instead, the geotechnical engineers chose to support the tower on a series of 950 precast concrete friction piles driven between 60 and 90 feet into the soft clays below. But due to the geology of the Millennium Tower’s site, end-bearing piles would have reached down over 200 feet before hitting competent rock. Many tall buildings in this area rest on foundation systems that extend all the way down to bedrock, on what are called end-bearing piles. Millennium Tower was built in South of Market, a neighborhood that mostly used to belong to San Francisco Bay. But the strata below our city streets can consist of anything from sand to clay to solid rock, and many cities, including San Francisco, have infilled former marshes and bays with soil in order to expand their coastlines and generate valuable real estate. While a one or two story wood-framed building can be built safely with a shallow foundation on crummy soil, a major skyscraper requires a foundation that can transfer extremely high loads into the earth. In foundation design, not all terra is firma. Millenium Tower located in San Francisco’s SOMA, near the Financial District. Millennium Tower happens to be a large enough project with a severe enough problem that the whole world can’t help but gawk. In most scenarios, these deflections are so minuscule that the occupants never even notice. Buildings sway in the wind, expand and contract in response to temperature changes, and shift with the land upon which they rest. Our office towers, apartment complexes, and single family homes move in response to loads applied by the environment. Since the foundation issues came to light in August 2016, the vertiginous ultra-luxury highrise has become the subject of outrage, ridicule, and at least two pieces of pending litigation. Since its completion in 2009, the 58-story, 645-foot tall residential building has settled 16 inches and tilted perhaps 2 inches to the northwest. San Francisco’s Millennium Tower is sinking. ![]()
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