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Surprise! Moving a 340-Ton Boulder From Riverside to LACMA Turns Into Bureaucratic Nightmare
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Nobody thought that moving a 340-ton boulder from Riverside to LACMA where it will be featured in Michael Heizer's exhibit "Levitated Mass" would be easy.
The rock was scheduled to be moved from a rock quarry outside Riverside to LACMA in August. It missed that deadline, then a few more and now there isn't even a deadline — just a promise from LACMA officials that they'll let the eager masses know when it's finally going to happen:
We continue to make progress toward transport every day, and hope to announce very soon that it is moving. We are working with numerous county, city, and state offices in getting all necessary permits and other ducks in a row - it is a complicated and lengthy (and mundane) process. We are as anxious to see the transport happen as anyone! We hope to have a more detailed update after the new year.
One of the issues delaying the rock's journey — noted by the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times — is all the red tape that officials have to cut through.If — and when — the rock finally starts its journey, it will travel 106 miles over nine days at no more than seven miles per hour at any given time. Heaven help you if you encounter this behemoth on your commute: the stoplights have to be timed right, traffic will be redirected, some traffic signs will have to be taken down temporarily and when drivers have to stop and park the rock, it will have to be smack in the middle of the street.
The initial plans for the rock's route — a year in the making — were thrown into disarray when museum officials discovered that one of the bridges in Pomona might not be able to withstand the 340-ton rock. Museum officials were forced to come up with a new route through Diamond Bar, Chino and Chino Hills. That meant more red tape to cut through and all those missed deadlines.
LACMA seems to be taking the long view: “Assuming this is going to be here for thousands of years, a few months don’t matter,” Michael Govan, the executive director of LACMA, told the New York Times.
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