After being stripped mostly to its metal bones, the Arc of History refused early Friday to budge from its base at the U.S. Highway 550/160 intersection.
The Arc is slated for removal after two years on display because it was damaged by vandals and the city’s insurance seemed unlikely to cover the cost of repairs.
City crews started work shortly after 3 a.m. Friday, but about an hour later, they packed up, taking most of the rock from the Arc with them. The largely bare metal arms of the controversial sculpture remained to greet morning commuters.
The process started with workers taking off some pieces by hand, before unbolting the metal connecting the sculpture to its base.
Then, they wrapped chains and straps around the sculpture and tried to lift it from the base with a boom attached to a front-end loader. The city planned to remove the sculpture all in one piece, but instead the force broke many rocks.
Epoxy between the bottom of the sculpture and the concrete base caused the problem, said City Operations Director Levi LLoyd.
The epoxy was not included in the structural plans for the sculpture.
To remove the structure, crews may have to cut through its center supporting beam, he said.
“The crews didn’t want to damage the structure without talking to some folks,” he said.
The crews will likely remove what remains of the sculpture in the next week or two, he said.
Lloyd estimates the cost of removal will be less than $1,500, including employee staff time and use of city equipment.
The city is trying to keep the concrete base intact so it can be used for another piece of art.
The city’s Public Art Commission recently delayed making a decision about the ultimate fate of the sculpture until it could be removed from its base and evaluated. The group had discussed auctioning it off or recycling the materials.
Plans to remove the sculpture moved forward after the Arc’s creator, Tom Holmes, in August dropped plans to sue the city.
The Visual Artists Rights Act might have required the city to repair the sculpture, but the law is somewhat unclear on that point, said the artists’ lawyer, Kenneth Golden.
mshinn@durangoherald.com
