San Francisco skyscraper lost 7.6 centimeters last year

The Millennium Tower, a nearly 200-meter tall skyscraper in San Francisco, is rapidly becoming unbalanced. Last year, the tower leaned 7.6 centimeters, calculated the engineer responsible for restoring the tower, Ron Hamburger.

The nearly 200 meter high tower was misaligned from the start. A few years after its completion in 2009, the tower was already tilted 40 centimeters. He had also sunk 46 centimeters into the ground at that time.

The tower could soon be leaning so much that residents will no longer be able to live there, warns Hamburger. If nothing is done, in a few years the elevators and sewers will stop working. Now the tower is always safe, says Hamburger to CNN.

The engineer expects it to stay that way while his team installs new support posts. He wants to be ready in September.

Millions of dollars for housing

The reclamation project will cost around $100 million (87 million euros) and is the result of years of lawsuits by residents. The skyscraper has 58 floors and has several hundred luxury apartments. Residents often paid millions of dollars for their homes.

Experts believe nearby construction projects are the cause of the subsidence.