Following years of fundraising, the actual handy work to create the Waukee Trailhead public art installation began in mid-March. Artists at the RDG Dahlquist Art Studio are hard at work pressing, firing, coloring, glazing and building the $1.1 million Waukee Railroad Pergola – In the Shadow of the Rails. This piece will be installed at the Waukee gateway of the Raccoon River Valley Trail, and the pergola will stretch more than 340 feet along and above the trailhead. In bright colors of red, white and black, its canopy will be 15 feet high and 18 feet wide. The project will include a building with public restrooms, already in place, an improved paved parking area and a colonnade of lighted bollards along Hickman Road. It will be lit up at night, and the colorful installation will be the first part of the RRVT that many trail users encounter when they come streaming out of Des Moines on the metro trails system. The goal is to have it completed by late summer/early fall. A ribbon-cutting date will be announced later this year.