Politics & Government

Massive Rock Begins Journey to LACMA

A 340-ton boulder will pass through Long Beach on its way to LACMA.

A 340-ton boulder that will go on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art will tomorrow begin the slow, painstakingly calculated journey from a Riverside County rock quarry to the museum on Wilshire Boulevard's Miracle Mile, passing through Long Beach in the process.

The 21 1/2-foot-tall granite megalith will meander under the dark of night at about 8 mph through four counties and 22 cities.

The rock will be part of the permanent exhibit "Levitated Mass,'' artist Michael Heizer's designed grand entrance to the LACMA complex. Visitors will pass under the huge boulder through a 456-foot slot carved under the rock on the museum's north side.

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Museum officials hope to have the exhibit open by late spring or early summer.

The rock's trip is scheduled to begin at a quarry near Riverside late tomorrow night and arrive at LACMA early the morning of March 10. The rock will only be moved during late night and early morning hours.

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The most direct route -- west on the Pomona (60) and Santa Monica (10) freeways -- was not possible due to the rock's height and freeway bridges that cannot stand the strain, officials said.

Instead, the 11-night, 105-mile journey will detour on surface streets. Traffic signals will have to be disassembled, power lines will have to be cut, and ramps built across medians before the giant rock mover can pass. Then everything will have to be reassembled before morning commuters hit the streets.

Emmert International, which specializes in moving extremely large or sensitive objects like nuclear generators and missiles, will move the boulder on a so-called transporter that is about 200 feet long and three-freeway lanes wide. The Chinese company Hanjin Shipping Co. is covering much of the cost of the trip. Private donors also helped fund the artwork. LACMA Communications Director Miranda Carroll declined to disclose its cost.

The museum was set to move the rock last fall, but engineers had to redesign the route after it was found one of the bridges on the route was not up to code. That required reapplying for the necessary permits from all of the relevant jurisdictions leading to the subsequent delay, Carroll said.

Maps call for the rock to head west on Van Buren Street through Chino, and wind around in Hacienda Heights before veering south on Colima Road into Whittier. The route goes through La Mirada, Cerritos and briefly into Orange County before the megalith finally heads west across the San Gabriel River bridge at Del Amo Boulevard.

After heading north to South Street, the rock will cross west across Lakewood and then zig-zag south and west all the way to Ocean Boulevard in Long Beach.

The rock will finally cross the Los Angeles River via Pacific Coast Highway, then head north via Western Avenue and Figueroa Street.

In all, it will be transported through Riverside, San Bernardino, Orange and Los Angeles counties and 22 cities, according to Carroll.

Heizer first came up with the idea for the artwork in 1968, but did not discover an appropriate boulder until 2007, when the rock was quarried. The artist had worked with the quarry before for previous artworks.

"He definitely wanted something from that quarry, because it's California granite,'' Carroll said.

The exhibit will be permanent.

"It will probably be here way longer than any of us,'' Carroll said.

 

--with reports from CNS and MarieSam Sanchez


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