King County Water Taxi riders who disembarked their vessels Monday in Downtown Seattle might have noticed some new, metallic arches over their heads.

No, they aren’t the Water Taxi’s newest art installation. No, it isn’t homage to the retractable roof at Safeco Field. (Although it does look pretty cool.)

Instead, the frames will serve a more practical purpose: support an overhead covering to help protect riders from the elements.

A canopy stretching dozens of feet is scheduled to be completed in the coming days, which is hopefully plenty of time before the rain (remember that stuff?) begins to fall.

This is something riders on both the West Seattle and Vashon routes have asked us about since we started operating out of our temporary location in August.

Our riders can be confident that when the rain falls as they’re waiting for their vessel, they’ll be able to take cover at our facility.