The saga of San Francisco's sinking Millennium Tower continues, as the structure's movement has now created a 1-inch gap between the main tower and a 12-story podium, according to reporting by the San Francisco Chronicle.
The tower began settling unevenly in 2016, as previously reported by KCBS Radio. Now, the 58-story tower is tilting and has also sunk 18 inches, creating a gap with the other building, as reported by the paper.
Located in the city's financial district, the building was reportedly tilting 26 inches north and west as of last month.
But the structure is still safe, according to the engineer tasked with fixing the building's structural issues.
"We have fully considered this in our evaluation of the building's structural safety and determined that the building is not at risk due to this movement, or any movement likely to occur before construction completion," said Ron Hamburger of Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, the project engineer, as reported by the paper.
The current $100 million plan to fix the building's issues involves installing 18 steel piles around 250 feet underneath the building, as previously reported by KCBS Radio.
This isn't the first time a gap became an issue with the structure. In 2019, people were no longer allowed to use an elevator connecting an underground parking garage under the podium because of a growing gap, according to the paper.
After the issue was fixed, service to the elevator was restored, the paper reported.
Ron Hamburger did not respond to KCBS Radio's request for comment at the time of publication.
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