Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/02/22/san-franciscos-millennium-tower-is-not-so-fixed.html
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Next attempt…
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or maybe…
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The new modelling predicts…
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there’s only been about an inch of tilt reversal, a quarter of what the model had predicted.
Continue to gormlessly frown at the units utilized; not that they’re non-metric (one can do inches to centimeters on one’s handy fuel injected abacus), but that they’re a linear measure for what seems to be an angular matter. Where is this inch measured? above or below? on a corner or leading edge? and it doesn’t sound like something which should be off a single gargoyle’s ear but rather some statistical aggregate over a large part of the structure? [shrug] (“ey! you ain’t no architectural engineer, are you mate?”)
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Ridiculous the condo owners have to keep paying for this clown show.
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Lucky that the building has a stone facade that can take that kind of structural force, but I guess that’s part of the Metropolis building codes. (After long gruesome learning experiences.)
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The models are fine. The problem is the data you have (or haven’t) to feed into the model(s). It’s effing dirt. There is data from samples, but how representative is this for the whole area? There are geological maps. There are people with local experience. There may be data from projects nearby. And so on. You have indicators, but you don’t know for sure. So at the end of the day, there is a fair amount of guestimates that go into the calculations.
Another problem that may or may not factor in is the, let’s say desire, to start with an acceptable outcome and make the rest fit.
Not that this particular project wasn’t bungled from the start. And then they bungled the fixes. And bungled fixing the fixes. Seriously, the only thing that’s still missing at this point is Elon Musk weighing in with one of his brilliant ideas to try another fix. Like, I don’t know, bolt a couple of Raptor motors on the roof and keep them firing 24/7.
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The tower is also not settling “to the other side” as anticipated and leveling out nearly as quickly, or as much, as famed building engineer Ron Hamburger had predicted.
But he’s so trustworthy, with such a good track record [with the developers].
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So much this.
I sat through a program review a couple days ago where the head of our business unit, trying to justify his high confidence score on a new design, told our VP of engineering that “the CFD modeling was really very persuasive,” to which the VP of engineering responded (and he’s Russian, so imagine this in a Russian accent), “Pah, modeling.”
Your model’s only as good as your worst guess.
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Right on. In any building project, there are financial decisions made which have long term impacts on the structural integrity, longevity, and finish quality of the project. Many, many decisions are made which can have a cascading effect down the road. So here’s my suggested theorem:
The risk of future problems is in direct proportion to the tightness of the initial budget, and the bad decisions that ensue from a myopic focus on cost and profits.
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I’ve had developers ask me whether the building really needed foundations at all, or could they at least be somewhat smaller, or maybe made from something less expensive than reinforced concrete?
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i mean, it does depend on what the goals are… 
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Ships sometimes have reinforced hull sections marked specifically so a tug can push them. One assumes Metropolis buildings and public transport use a similar system.
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the [so-called] engineer of the so-called fix
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So, are they going to throw another (checks) $120 million at it to put down more bedrock-level pilings, this time on the other 2 sides plus a few in the middle to take care of the “dishing,” or finally admit their building is unfixable and start deconstruction?
Oh, who am I kidding, the rentiers already passed on some of the charges to the renters (an additional $10/sq. ft), they’ll just double-down on “It’s fine, we can just patch it up” again and again until the building collapses or someone from the government grows a spine and forces them to tear it down.
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If you have anchored two sides to bedrock why not just pump a little water into the unanchored sides at pylon depth? If water and soil movement caused the issue in the first place you can use it to your advantage, right…right?
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They could bring in one of those companies that will inject expanding foam under your sidewalk to level it up when it subsides? Sure, that might work?
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If the building foundation is sinking in the middle, parts of the structure and exterior walls will now be under tension rather than compression. It will be interesting to see the affects of this slow motion implosion.
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Just spitballing here- but - the world’s biggest flying buttress!
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