LOS ANGELES -- A frustrated artist upset over a confusing freeway sign scaled the sign and added directions.

Richard Ankrom (pictured left), 46, worked on his project during the day as thousands of motorists passed. Ankrom wore a hard hat and an orange reflective vest and even cut his hair to avoid raising suspicion from transportation crews and police.

FeedRoom

Freeway Artist

The artist built and installed the directions to help motorists make a smooth transition from the Harbor Freeway to northbound Interstate 5, located near downtown.

DISCUSSION BOARD What do you think about the 'freeway artist's' project?

By plastering the "North 5" moniker on the existing sign, Ankrom not only followed state specifications but also showed that art can make a difference.

"It needed to be done," he said. "It's not like it was something that was intentionally wrong."

Ankrom completed work in August 2001, three years after he first thought of the idea. When a local newspaper column leaked the news in April, state transportation officials discovered the change.

The state Department of Transportation will leave the sign in place, for now. Caltrans officials also said the agency won't pursue charges for trespassing or tampering with state property.

"The experts are saying that Mr. Ankrom did a fantastic job," conceded Caltrans spokeswoman Jeanne Bonfilio. "They thought it was an internal job."

Ankrom came up with the plan in 1999 after he repeatedly had problems finding the offramp to Interstate 5. Some motorists know the left-lane exit is at the end of a series of four tunnels, but a sign indicating Interstate 5 can easily be missed.

The sign where he placed the unauthorized addition is about two miles south of the offramp, giving motorists an opportunity to get into the correct lane.

To pull off his prank, Ankrom studied freeway signs and downloaded specifications from the Federal Highway Administration's Web site.

His biggest challenge was finding reflective buttons resembling those on interstate signs. He finally located replica buttons sold by a company in Tacoma, Wash.

To avoid any problems, he put a contractor-style logo on the side of his pickup truck. But a closer look would have revealed something suspicious. The logo read "Aesthetic De Construction."

"I tried to make this airtight, because I didn't want anything to go wrong," he said.

Friends captured the entire nine-month process on video which resulted in a short-film documentary of the events. Ankrom hopes Caltrans officials will either return his work or keep it intact.

"If they want to keep it up there, that is fine too," he said. "Hopefully it will help people out, which was the whole point."

Sign Up:Breaking News E-mails