Artwork installed on Fairfield Loop Trail

The Jefferson County Trails Council has installed the first artwork on the western route of the Fairfield Loop Trail.

This section opened in fall of 2011 and completed the 16 miles of the trail. The artwork enhances a pedestrian safety feature at the crossing of the trail with the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe Railroad on South 23rd Street.

Judy Bales, who has worked with the trails council on numerous projects, designed art enhancements of self-weathering steel to be mounted on the unadorned chain link ?maze? on both sides of the tracks. The maze causes pedestrians to look both ways before crossing the double tracks. Bales created a design that alludes to sound waves, or more specifically to the Doppler effect, which describes the noticeable change in the frequency of sound people noticed when an object, such as a train, passes by.

The art project was funded in part by a Challenge America grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The Jefferson County Trails Council was one of only 162 grantees nationwide.