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Big piles of dirt and the orange signs that warn drivers of construction ahead have both appeared as a busy Fort Dodge intersection gets a facelift.

Crews are now reworking the juncture of Eighth Street and Fifth Avenue South to create pedestrian plazas, sidewalks and a place to display a large metal sculpture.

''This is really the first phase of the implementation of the corridor study that was done last year,'' said City Engineer Chad Schaeffer.

That study was prepared by Short Elliott Hendrickson of Minneapolis, Minn. The Howard R. Green Co., of Cedar Rapids, prepared the designs being used for the construction work.

Bolstering the local economy by improving the safety and appearance of the major routes to and through the city is the objective of the project, called Corridor of Commerce.

The effort to move that plan from blueprints to concrete and steel got started at Eighth Street and Fifth Avenue South.

Crews from Hovey Construction Inc. of Fort Dodge are building a retaining wall on a hillside at the south end of that intersection. Schaeffer said it will help hold up the soil which will be deposited there to create a flat pedestrian plaza.

A 16-foot tall metal sculpture called ''Parade'' will eventually be set up there. The sculpture was donated to the city by the Catherine Vincent Deardorf Foundation. The pieces of that artwork are now in the basement garage of the Fort Dodge Municipal Building, 819 First Ave. S. Schaeffer said the sculpture's creator, William King, of New York, or one of his representatives will be in the city later this spring to put it together.

A new sidewalk will be extended from the sculpture plaza to the intersection of Fifth Avenue South and 12th Street.

Smaller pedestrian plazas will be created across the intersection from the sculpture site. One of those plazas will be close to Fair Oaks Middle School; the other will be near the Kenyon Road Bridge.

The plan for the intersection also calls for brick crosswalks, new street lights. trees and shrubs.

Schaeffer said the project is a little bit behind schedule. He said the plan was to start it last fall, but bad weather prevented that. He was unable to provide an estimated completion date for the job.

Hovey Construction has a $652,533.05 contract to work on that intersection and the juncture of Kenyon Road and U.S. Highway 169. Work there hasn't started because details are still being figured out with officials from the Iowa Department of Transportation, according to Schaeffer. The plan for that intersection calls for decorative limestone pillars and plantings.

''You'll see this phase will coordinate with the next one, which is Fifth Avenue South between 21st and 29th streets,'' Schaeffer said. ''You'll be able to see some of the plantings, the limestone pillars and decorative treatments carry through the project. You'll start to get a theme through the corridor.''

Work in the area between 21st and 29th streets will begin late this summer when MidAmerican Energy buries the electric lines that are now strung between utility poles. Next year, the utility's Fort Dodge customers will see their monthly bills rise to pay for those underground power lines. City officials have estimated that the average residential customer will experience a $4.83 monthly increase.

Contact Bill Shea at (515) 573-2141 or bshea@messengernews.net