After two years, nine lawsuits, and 146 lawyers, San Francisco’s Millennium Tower and its disgruntled residents have reached a settlement worth $500 million, some of which will surely be paid for by taxpayers.
See also: A $100 million solution could save San Francisco’s Millennium Tower
It took two years for the developers of the sinking tower to decide how to solve the problem and convince the government that it was partly responsible. Although the Millennium Tower developers didn’t bother to drill into the rock to anchor their 60-story luxury skyscraper. They were able to convince the government that it wasn’t their own design plan that caused their building to sink to one side, but rather the construction of the nearby city-funded Transbay Terminal, which further destabilized the mud on which they built their tower.
To correct the problem, they will need to add 52 piles, drilled 250 feet deep into the rock. The 2-foot-thick circular steel piles will be filled with reinforced concrete. Twenty-two will be driven along Mission Street and 30 on Fremont Street. For now, the building is still only anchored in the mud, at a depth of 30 meters.
The exact breakdown of the deal has not yet been disclosed, but expect to hear in the future that the rich of this luxury disaster, and the builders responsible, are asking you, the taxpayers, to foot the bill. Take a look.
On the Millennium Tower website, there is a “Building Comments” tab. It asks visitors to leave comments, but warns that non-constructive comments will be deleted. It says, “Would you like to leave a review of the Millennium Tower? Or perhaps you have tips or advice for a potential buyer. If so, please leave your review here as a comment on this article. Please remain constructive or your comment will be deleted.”
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