A 58-story skyscraper in San Francisco is tilting and sinking

[Irish Exit]

Also, how has the tilt been mitigated? I'm not been following it that closely.

The City isn't liable for approving the design unless it is against a specific Code. Neither is the contractor as long as he built the foundation in accordance with the plans. They are not responsible for checking the engineer; he is completely liable.

Nope. There is a plan to fix it at $150M more than the thing cost to build to begin with and apparently walls are starting to crack like mad and some windows as well from the tension on them.

 

[MAGA MAN]

Nope. There is a plan to fix it at $150M more than the thing cost to build to begin with and apparently walls are starting to crack like mad and some windows as well from the tension on them.

I went to a dinner one time honoring the founder of a large company that I worked for (great guy) and the speaker was a local college coach. One of the things he said I'll never forget. 'When a doctor makes a mistake few people know about it and the evidence is buried in the grave. When an engineer makes a mistake the building, bridge, dam is right out there as a monument to it, and everyone knows about it.'

 

[Irish Exit]

I went to a dinner one time honoring the founder of a large company that I worked for (great guy) and the speaker was a local college coach. One of the things he said I'll never forget. 'When a doctor makes a mistake few people know about it and the evidence is buried in the grave. When an engineer makes a mistake the building, bridge, dam is right out there as a monument to it, and everyone knows about it.'

I've read some things that indicate it may not necessarily be a mistake as far as the design, particularly the foundation not going all the way to bedrock because the concrete superstructure is more than heavy enough for that to have worked. One engineer interviewed indicted the building could possibly be more twisting than sinking. Either way. I am sure whatever it costs to fix will be doubled by the legal fees with everybody under the sun suing everybody else over it.

 

[Truth Detector]

When this gets into the legal system very often logic and reason goes out the window in favor of deep pockets, but the way the industry works, and the language of the International Building Code reflects this, is that the liability rests with the engineer of record. In this case it is the engineer who sealed the foundation plans. That person may rely on a sealed report by another licensed professional, in this case a geotechnical report, but the geotech is only technically liable if his report is incorrect.

It is the city's job, as the Code Enforcement Official, to check that the building plans meet Code. So unless the Code requires foundations to be founded on bedrock they have to approve, a better term would be accept, the sealed plans. In other words, it's not the CEO's job to oversee the engineer. Most of the time (always) they lack the training and qualifications to do that. Very few CEOs are licensed engineers or architects. And that's OK because the system isn't set up that way.

In my state there have been several instances where a municipality has been sued based on the negligence of the CEO. But these have been around failure to adequately inspect a project in accordance with the sealed plans. In other words negligence during the construction phase, approving construction that was not done or not done adequately. Although I don't have all the details, my suspicion is that is not the case here.

As I said earlier owners, developers are always trying to reduce costs and I have been asked numerous times to negotiate physics. I know and have known many engineers that will do that just to keep themselves employed, so that this is a very plausible scenario.

I can't disagree with any of this. We are in the same business and it is apparent to me you know what you are talking about.