California Infrastructure and San Francisco's Leaning Tower of Lawsuits

“The Millennium Tower opened to great acclaim with high-priced, posh apartments. But those accolades and property values are sinking, along with the building’s foundation”
“Jon Wertheim: What is under the ground here?
Larry Karp: What is under the ground here at the surface is rubble from the 1906 earthquake, brick and sand and debris, everything you could imagine is down here.
You have to go 200 feet below the Millennium Tower, through layers of history in the ground — below landfill from the time of the gold rush, sand, mud and clay — to reach solid rock or bedrock. Karp says the fact that the tower’s foundation isn’t anchored in bedrock — well, that’s a problem.
“Everybody is afraid to tell the truth. Because if we get to the bottom of this, they are worried that it is going to, in some ways, slow down the building boom that is happening in San Francisco.”
Larry Karp: For a big, heavy building, a concrete building, those foundations have to go deeper. For a building like this, they have to go to bedrock.
Otherwise, he says, the structure will sink into less sturdy layers of sand and mud. And because it doesn’t sink or settle uniformly, you get tilting.”
www.cbsnews.com/news/millennium-tower-san-francisco-leaning-tower-of-lawsuits-1/
Oroville Dam:
“An investigation into last winter’s near catastrophe at Oroville Dam uncovered a litany of problems with how the dam was built and maintained, but one of them stands out: Even as workers built the dam, they were raising alarms about the eroded, crumbling rock on which they were directed to lay concrete for the 3,000-foot-long main flood control spillway.
Construction reports from the fall of 1966 showed an abundance of loose clay, “shot rock” and “very little solid rock.” The surface was so crumbly, according to a state engineer overseeing the work, that a laborer at one point refused to do any more prep work until he got clearance from his boss. The contractor told the California Department of Water Resources it needed to dig deeper to find stronger rock
www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article195680234.html
Why am I sensing a theme of building ridiculously large projects on poor foundations?
Also, is Oroville Dam leaking?:
www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article162801773.html
Who is responsible for these inspections?
 
www.newsdeeply.com/water/articles/2017/04/07/oroville-disaster-may-have-been-caused-by-weak-soil-under-spillway
Jerry Brown signed a dam inspection bill based on the Oroville crisis just THREE DAYS AGO, requiring a…..wait for it…..annual safety inspection. SERIOUSLY?? The dam almost fails, and there are numerous groups saying the dam is either 1) leaking or 2) built on an unsteady foundation, and a YEAR LATER Brown decides to act?? And the action is basically annual inspections?? Seriously? What the heck were the inspection requirements during the last years?
www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article202218164.html
“Court documents read, “inspection reports spanning nearly two decades … indicate DWR delayed or intentionally ignored a wide variety of maintenance and management issues.”
FEMA said it “does not have the authority to fund the repair of damage that may have been pre-existing due to a lack of maintenance, or the age of the facility or component.”
sacramento.cbslocal.com/2018/02/01/oroville-dam-lawsuit/
Of course, it doesn’t help if the people who are supposed to be doing the inspecting are corrupt:
“The FBI launched an undercover sting operation focusing on Building and Safety in 2010, capturing two inspectors on tape as they accepted cash from people seeking permits. Both men pleaded guilty and received prison sentences. Two other department employees were dismissed in connection with the city’s internal investigation of wrongdoing.”
articles.latimes.com/2014/mar/25/local/la-me-building-inspector-corruption-20140325
“Third-party building inspectors: A boon for efficiency or ‘recipe for potential corruption?”
www.constructiondive.com/news/third-party-building-inspectors-a-boon-for-efficiency-or-recipe-for-poten/419272/
www.sfgate.com/bayarea/matier-ross/article/S-F-Department-of-Building-Inspection-s-conflict-3589040.php
 
h/t CrankyFairy1

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