Posted on 09/11/2013 6:08:37 PM PDT by nickcarraway
New troll's secret location is only temporary as transportation officials try to find it a permanent home that meets several important requirements
Bay Area transportation officials today briefly discussed the existence of a good-luck troll on the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge but were reluctant to provide many details about it.
Peter Lee, principal transportation engineer with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, told members of the Bay Area Toll Authority at their monthly meeting, "There is a troll on the new bridge."
However, Lee wouldn't disclose the troll's location, saying only, "It's somewhere on the bridge."
The new troll is aimed at carrying on a tradition that started in late 1989 when iron workers place a good-luck troll on the eastern span when they replaced a slab of bridge deck that collapsed in the Loma Prieta earthquake on Oct. 17 of that year.
The old troll was created by local artist and blacksmith Bill Roan. Lee said the old troll was recently removed from the old eastern span, but he told committee members, "Don't ask me where" it's now being stored.
When Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates pressed the issue and asked where the old troll was, MTC Executive Director Steve Heminger said only that "it's at a secure undisclosed location not on the bridge."
After the meeting, MTC spokesman John Goodwin provided bits of additional information, confirming that the old troll was removed the night of Aug. 28, the first night the Bay Bridge was closed for last-minute work so the new span could open on Labor Day.
Goodwin would not specify where the new troll has been placed, saying that it might be somewhere on the new span or inside a steel section of the span.
He said the troll's current location is only temporary, and that transportation officials are trying to find it a permanent home that meets several important requirements.
Goodwin said trolls don't like to be exposed to sunlight, so officials want to find a shaded location.
He noted that the new troll was placed on the bridge only after the sun had gone down on Labor Day.
Goodwin said another requirement is that the new troll be visible "to those who seek it out" so officials want to place it where it can be seen, such as by people who go under the bridge on a boat or by people who use the bike and pedestrian path on the new eastern span. He said the new troll was donated, and no public funds were used to pay for it.
Both trolls "appeared without official sanction," and the Bay Area Toll Authority has adopted a policy of "benign non-interference" in allowing them to be placed on the bridge, Goodwin said. He said the new troll is crafted from steel, is slimmer than the old troll, stands upright, and holds a sledgehammer.
Troll Gate continues on the location of the troll booth on Willie Brown International Bridge
"I'm not going to pay this toll! The government takes too much money from old people like me. I don't care how scary that toll collector looks -- what's he going to do, hit me with that hammer?"
It’s in the troll booth.
NEVER MIND!
lol International? From the US to San Francisco?
If they need a troll we would be happy to send them Barbara Mikulski.
Barbara sends XOXOXOXOXOs
:)
I like the troll in Seattle better
I would sanction the spending of a couple of buck of tax payer money to put some pants on him.
Corduroy?
I’m glad Robert Reich found a job.
lol
Technically, San Francisco is not part of the USA. I believe it is a wholly independent communist nation with a seat at the head of the UN next to Al Qaeda. You don’t need a passport, but you do lose all of your God given US freedom and rights when you breach the city limits.
They do have the right to walk down the street naked, something my wife has restricted of me.
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