A drive-through Route 66 shield is being constructed on Old Route 66 in Galena, Kansas, between the historic Front Street Bridge and the downtown area.
The Joplin Globe in nearby Joplin, Missouri, had the details:
Dale Oglesby, owner of B&B Discount and a former mayor of Galena, provided a large forklift to move the frame for the sign into its new home across from Luigi’s Pit Stop on Thursday. Danny Charles and Billy Charles, son and husband of City Clerk and Kansas Route 66 Association President Renee Charles, will add aluminum skin over the next few weeks. It also will have lights on it.
Renee Charles said the result will be a 16-foot-tall highway shield with a 10-foot-by-10-foot driveway in the middle of it to allow cars and small trucks to drive under it and people to pose for pictures.
It will be similar to a shield recently installed in Kingman, Arizona.
Nearby is Luigi’s Pit Stop, inspired by the 2006 Disney-Pixar animated film “Cars.” That site includes a replica of the Sheriff of Radiator Springs from the movie.
The site also will be close to the Cars on the Route, a popular tourist stop. That’s a former gas station where one of Pixar’s animators found a 1951 International boom truck that eventually served as the inspiration for Tow Mater in “Cars.”
The Front Street Bridge in Galena dates to 1922 — several years before U.S. 66 existed.
Charles said they hope to have the drive-through shield finished by May 17 — the same day as a concert by The Road Crew and a grand reopening of Cars on the Route.
The drive-through shield is part of a multitude of new attractions coming before Route 66’s centennial in 2026.
(Screen-capture from video of the structure for the Route 66 drive-through shield in Galena, Kansas)