Months before the long-awaited, brand new Rainier Beach High School opened to students last April, engineers on the $297-million project reported problems with the building’s foundation to the city, records show. The school was settling into the earth more than expected in areas, as much as three inches, and it hadn’t stopped sinking.
“The project is on fairly porous ground, and it did settle more than they expected,” said Tina Christiansen, Seattle Public Schools capital projects spokesperson.
Shortly before the building opened, “it was determined that settlement had stopped,” Christiansen said, and builders dealt with the uneven settlement by releveling the top of the concrete foundation…