Overview
When a semi-trailer ran over the Lone Oak Trailhead monument on Dakota County's Minnesota River Greenway, the county called Dimension Sign to rebuild it. We fabricated a complete double-faced replacement to the county's current greenway standards — finished in our proprietary faux-Corten paint system — and engineered it to drop onto the original, undamaged footings so the county's own crew could set it in a single morning.
01 / The challenge
The original monument was struck and destroyed during a winter storm, but its concrete footings and anchors survived intact. The replacement had to match the existing footing pattern exactly so it could reuse those anchors, conform to Dakota County's updated greenway wayfinding standards rather than the old design, and carry the correct amenity symbology on both faces for a trailhead whose facilities had since changed.
02 / Our approach
We assessed the recovered sign, confirmed it was beyond repair, and built a new double-faced monument from quarter-inch waterjet-cut aluminum. The panels wear our proprietary five-coat faux-Corten finish — the warm, weathered look of Corten steel with none of the rust that bleeds onto concrete and turf — set off by a green accent and stud-mounted flat-cut-out aluminum letters. We updated the amenity pictograms to the county's current standard (vault toilet, bike-repair station, interpretive exhibit) and added decorative cedar beams true to the greenway aesthetic. The welded aluminum posts get custom 3D-printed caps — printed to fit each post exactly for a low, clean profile, then painted in the same faux-Corten finish so they read as part of the sign. Our team field-templated the existing footings so the posts and baseplates dropped straight onto the original anchors, then delivered the finished monument for the county crew to set.
What came back to the shop
The original monument was struck and knocked down during the snowstorm, then recovered and palletized. The concrete footings and anchors underground had survived — but the sign itself was scrapped. All we needed from it was the footing pattern, so the replacement could be built to drop straight onto the anchors already in the ground.
The Corten look. None of the rust.
Real weathering steel bleeds rust for years, staining the concrete, pavers, and turf it sits on. Our proprietary five-coat process builds that same warm, weathered patina onto lightweight aluminum — so the monument reads like solid Corten and never streaks a drop onto the greenway around it.
- Five coats, hand-applied, for true depth and tone
- Zero rust runoff onto concrete, pavers, or turf
- Lighter than steel — faster to ship and to set
- Won't corrode through, so it holds the look for decades
- Even the custom 3D-printed post caps wear the same finish
From the shop to the trail
“Dimension Sign was incredibly responsive, anticipated our needs, and was flexible working with our team of Dakota County staff to deliver our new monument sign.”
Scope & features
- Full replacement of a monument destroyed by a semi-trailer
- Double-faced (two-panel) for bidirectional trail visibility
- Proprietary five-coat faux-Corten finish — no rust bleed onto concrete or turf
- Built to Dakota County's current greenway wayfinding standards
- Stud-mounted flat-cut-out aluminum letters and painted pictograms
- Custom 3D-printed post caps — printed-to-fit, low-profile, painted faux-Corten
- Welded aluminum posts and baseplates
- Decorative natural cedar beams to the greenway standard
- Field-templated to reuse the existing concrete footings and anchors
- Palletized delivery for county self-installation
- One chapter of a running county relationship — six greenway kiosks preceded it, county-installed
- When county files were missing the kiosk drawings, our archive filled the gap the same day
- Our letter heights now serve as the county's matching standard for new trail signage
Materials
- ¼" waterjet-cut aluminum
- Five-coat faux-Corten finish
- Flat-cut-out aluminum letters
- 6061 aluminum posts & baseplates
- 3D-printed post caps
- Decorative cedar beams
