After being damaged by an allegedly impaired driver late one night in March, the “Endurance” bike sculpture is being repaired by its Boulder-based creator and could return to the Chapman Hill roundabout as soon as this summer.
“Endurance” consists of five welded stainless-steel sculptures depicting cyclists and was built in 2012 to commemorate the USA Pro Cycling Challenge. On March 8, a woman who was later arrested on suspicion of drunken driving drove into the sculpture. Three of the five cyclists were damaged.
On March 23, the piece’s creator, Joshua Wiener, drove from Boulder to collect the damaged pieces of the sculpture and take them back to his workshop, where he began working to resurrect it.
“Of the three that I got, one was completely destroyed, and the two others were bent to the point where I'll probably have to do a pretty significant amount of rebuild,” he said.
He said the city of Durango has been helpful.
“(The city is) really eager to make sure it gets done and brought to back to its original glory,” Weiner said.
According to a city news release on March 11, insurance covered the sculpture’s damage and its repairs.
Wiener said he has already begun cutting new steel bars to be used in the sculpture’s rebuild, though he has not had the chance to dive into the project.
“I’ve got my assistant cutting up bars right now,” he said. “Once I’ve got a bunch of base material, then I’ll start cutting things apart and pulling it apart and rebuilding.”
Still, Wiener said he tentatively plans to be done with the sculpture by summer.
“I’m shooting for June,” he said. “The idea that there’s only two up there feels a little sad, like something’s missing, and so I would like to see that back as soon as possible. So if I can do it sooner, I will.”
He said the sculpture means a lot to him, largely due to his connection to Durango, biking and his brother, Adam, who died from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and introduced him to the sport. Working on it is bittersweet, he said.
“It’s a piece that I love,” Wiener said. “To get it back to my studio and be working on it again, it’s special. Considering that my brother is in that piece, and my life in Durango, to go back and visit it is deeply meaningful.”
sedmondson@durangoherald.com
