UPDATE: This post has been updated to clarify the that the project team did not commission a peer geotechnical review of the geotechnical report on the building site.

Dive Brief:

• A professor of structural engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, who consulted on the Millennium Tower in San Francisco claimed that the developers paid for an independent peer review of the tower’s design before construction but did not commission a comparable geotechnical review of their geotechnical report, according to Curbed San Francisco.

• Testifying before the city’s Government Audit and Oversight Committee last week, Jack Moehle said that he reviewed the structural design of the 58-story building and the concrete slab that it sits on but nothing lower. He told city supervisors that although he found the foundation code compliant, he was not qualified to say whether it was functional in a larger context.

• Moehle said that a geotechnical engineer was not hired to assess the team's geotechnical report of the project site. Although the project passed muster with code officials, its unprecedented settling has since raised questions as to whether the site was suitable to begin with. 

Dive Insight:

The comments follow news last week that the insurance policies held by developer Millennium Partners and other project team members may not cover the cost to rectify the settling-related damages and stop the tower’s further sinking. The tower could sink nearly double the 16 inches it has settled so far, experts say. It also tilts 2 inches from its base and could slant further.

Millennium Partners said in September that water drainage from construction activity on a transit-related site next door had triggered the sinking. But transit officials denied this claim and said instead that the issue was due to the piles failing to reach bedrock. The latest claims around the lack of an independent review by a geotechnical engineer call attention to the challenges of constructing such foundations in coastal areas.

Despite the sinking and its related damage, city inspectors recently determined that the building is safe to live in. They were set to inspect the building again on Feb. 6.

Last month, a group of 20 homeowners filed a lawsuit against Millennium Partners in response to allegations that it knew the building was sinking faster than expected and failed to notify buyers of its properties.

For more housing news, sign up for our daily residential construction newsletter.