Here's More On Events Planned As Bixby Knolls Welcomes 340 Ton Rock's Arrival Mar. 7

(March 2, 2012, latest update 2:20 p.m.) -- Here's more on plans taking shape as Long Beach prepares to welcome a 340-ton boulder (about to become a "Levitated Mass" at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art) it's transported from a rock quarry in Riverside through Long Beach...including right through Bixby Knolls (where it can be seen on Wednesday, March 7, if the current schedule holds).

The rock (which travels from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m.) will actually enter Long Beach at South St/Obispo Ave., proceed west to Paramount Blvd, South to Del Amo Blvd, west to Atlantic Ave. and then south until to reaches 36th Street, where it will be parked during the day Wednesday.

A City Hall release says: "Atlantic Avenue will remain open on Wednesday, but traffic delays are expected between 36th and 37th streets, as only one lane of traffic will be open on either side of the parked trailer during the day."

Image via LAObserved.com

The Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association (which notes that the rock artwork is a privately funded project) says in a dispatch today (March 2) that "Councilmember James Johnson and the Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association thought we should just have some fun with all of this. Between Noon and 4:00pm on Wednesday, you are invited to come out and enjoy a party for this spectacle featuring music (our DJ playing songs that feature "rock" in the title), food, live artists, the Knolls Ranger, river rock decorating, photo ops with the rock, and more."

It adds: "Atlantic Avenue will experience some traffic delays as there will be only one lane of traffic open on either side of the parked trailer during the day."

[BKBIA dispatch text] Bixby Knolls will receive significant media coverage as being one of the best stops along the route for this art exhibit headed to Los Angeles. LACMA has been advertising Bixby Knolls to the local media and through its social media and we will share our party plans with them, too. We are hoping to see a good turn out to see this oddity and to give support to our local businesses.

LBReport.com also plans live coverage as the 340-ton granite rock rolls through through Long Beach on its way to LACMA on L.A.'s Miracle Mile. The "megalith" is being moved during overnight hours -- between 11:00 p.m. and 5 a.m. -- at about 8 mph. It's scheduled to arrive before dawn Wednesday March 7 and remain parked (on its transporting vehicle) on Atlantic Ave. between 36th St. and 37th St. until about 11 p.m...when it moves south, passing through downtown and then back up to PCH and out of town through WLB.

[Caveat: We presume the schedule is subject to change, since anything can happen on something like this. Check with LBReport.com for updated information.]

Image via Zevweb.com

LB City Hall says in a March 2 release: "All necessary permits have been acquired for the transport, which is fully insured and subject to strict Federal and State regulations for oversized/overweight movements. More than 500 oversized or overweight transports move through the City annually. The majority occur overnight, and are associated with the Boeing C-17 plant and the Port of Long Beach. The City of Long Beach has already been reimbursed for the cost of temporarily moving or removing street signs and traffic signals to accommodate the transport."

The "megalith" is scheduled to arrive in central LA on Friday night, heading up Figueroa (past Exposition Park and USC), then through West Adams, up Western Ave, then west on Wilshire Blvd. through the Miracle Mile to the museum.

LACMA describes the "Levitated Mass" artwork as "comprised of a 456-foot-long concrete-lined slot constructed on LACMA’s campus, upon and at the center of which is placed a 340-ton granite megalith. As visitors walk along the slot, it gradually descends to fifteen feet deep, running underneath the megalith before ascending back up."

LACMA says "this is possibly the largest megalithic stone moved since ancient times [but] not the first time heavy transport has occurred in Southern California. Just last year Southern California Edison shipped a 350-ton steam generator from the San Onofre nuclear plant to a nuclear-waste disposal site in Utah. A similar transporter was used -- 400 feet long! -- traveling slowly at night over the course of nineteen days, without incident.)

The "megalith" is scheduled to become part of artist Michael Heizer’s Levitated Mass, displayed above a 456 foot long trench...in which people can walk and see the 340 ton mass "floating" above them. (Don't try this at home"). Public viewing is expected to start in the late spring/early summer.

Who's paying for this? LACMA says:

Emmert International, a company that specializes in transporting large-scale objects such as buildings, nuclear reactor components, and missiles [is transporting the rock.]

...Levitated Mass was made possible by private gifts to Transformation: The LACMA Campaign from Jane and Terry Semel, Bobby Kotick, Carole Bayer Sager and Bob Daly, Beth and Joshua Friedman, Steve Tisch Family Foundation, Elaine Wynn, Linda, Bobby, and Brian Daly, Hanjin Shipping Co., Ltd., Richard Merkin, MD, and the Mohn Family Foundation, and has been dedicated by LACMA to the memory of Nancy Daly. Transportation is made possible by Hanjin Shipping Co., Ltd.