Sinking buildings in downtown Milwaukee

MILWAUKEE-City Hall is one of the buildings in downtown Milwaukee that is sinking.


Luckily there is technology that makes it easier for engineers to take a look at the area where they are building and determine is the area is safe for any new construction.


It's technology many didn't have when the buildings originally went up.


CBS 58 News went to Associate Professor  Christopher Raebell of the Milwaukee School of Engineering


\"Many of the older buildings in Milwaukee were supported on wood piles and if the wood gets wet, dries out and gets wet, if the foundation starts to rot the foundation might sink.\"


City Hall has settled two inches in the last 30 years.


Just blocks away, MSOE put up two new buildings including the Kern Center.


There was an old riverbed where the buildings are now, so they were forced to drill further down to prevent sinking in the future.


\"We need to drill down,\" explain Raebell. \"We can't support the building in a shallow foundation sense. We need to go to a deep foundation sense. Many of the buildings in the Milwaukee area are supported that way cause of the fact that we are close to the lake.\"



 

Share this article: