A giant 18-foot fork made by a local artist will once again sit at a traffic intersection in Pasadena, this time with permission from the city.

The City of Pasadena recently granted a permit for the refurbished wooden 18-foot “fork in the road” art installation piece located in the median dividing St. John and Pasadena Avenues to become a permanent, and legal, installation.

Last summer the founder of the Coffee Gallery and the artist who made the fork, Ken Marshall, erected the fork in a guerrilla art fashion in November 2009. The city ordered it taken down seven months later, but both residents and city officials loved the idea of the piece.

“I have to say the city has acted just like a city government should act,” said Coffee Gallery Backstage co-owner Bob Stane. “Everyone involved has been fantastic and helpful. We just can’t say enough about them.”

The fork was a gift to Stane for his 75th birthday. Back in mid-2010, when the removal order came, a company called Perry C. Thomas Construction in Monrovia offered to remove it, which they did with a forklift and transported it to David Smith Construction in Altadena, where it is currently being housed and undergoing some renovations.

After hearing about the city issuing a permanent grant for the fork, the Perry C. Thomas Construction company offered to put it back in the ground. Only a few small hurdles remain for that to happen.

So far it has been resanded, rebolted, repainted, but it needs a final silver finish and a clear coating to make it more weatherproof, which was requested by the city to give it more longevity, according to Marshall.

The foundation the fork rests in will be 6 feet deep, with reinforcing bars and concrete. Once restoration is complete, it will be a structure that will be able to handle up to 100 mile-per-hour winds.

The permit is ready to be picked up, but according to city engineer Dan Rix, it hasn’t been so far. Stane and Marshall said they asked the Perry Thomas company to pull the permit, after which they’ll have to notify the Underground Service Alert (or DigAlert), which sends out notices to all utilities notifying them that digging or excavation will take place. That allows utilities companies the opportunity to see if any of their underground infrastructure would be damaged by the installation.

Rix said it probably won’t be more than a few weeks until the fork is installed.

“Once they put in the footing, wait for the concrete to secure, then there’s the first excavation, the addition of a steel cage and anchor bolts, and then they have to wait a few days for the fork to be installed,” said Rix.

Marshall said they’re going to ask Throop Construction if they will help out and donate concrete for the footing.

“Once the concrete is poured we have to wait three days for it settle, then we can orchestrate getting the fork reinstalled,” said Marshall. “It will be in the same triangular piece of land, but it just will be further back from the street.”

That particular piece of land is owned by the state agency Caltrans, which has an agreement with the City of Pasadena to allow the city to maintain the property. After the fork first went up, Caltrans and the city modified the agreement to allow the city to issue permits to exhibit art pieces on that triangular piece of land.

“Part of it was specifically for the fork or any other art piece,” said Rix. “But we did not have an agreement prior to the fork.”

And what about future public art installations here in Altadena?

“We hope that becomes a trend,” said Stane. “We know Pasadena has adopted that attitude, and of course we would like that in Altadena, too. Public art adds a great amount of interest in a city and a lot of pride. Once it was taken down a lot of people missed the fork. We hope it happens in Altadena as well. We or anyone else can do a nice art installation in an area like that.”

So does the guerrilla-turned-permitted public installation artist have any projects up his sleeve for Pasadena or Altadena?

“Maybe,” Marhsall said with a laugh. “That’s the best I can say.”

For his part, Stane is excited to be able to see the fork permanently installed.

“That fork has been around the world,” said Stane. “It’s really been a sensation. Once it’s up there permanently it will become part of California.”