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City officials will unveil Friday the $170,000 first step in enhancing the look of Veterans Memorial Parkway, a sign that’s part of a larger plan to develop an economic gateway.

Featuring a poppy and the road name on a rock “about the size of a room,” as one city official put it, was constructed over the winter on the road’s east side, just north of Hwy. 401, and will be formally unveiled Friday afternoon.

The project also included extensive tree planting — part of a larger plan to turn the road into a more significant gateway into London, said Andrew Macpherson, the city staffer handling the landscape efforts.

“It’s part of the bigger gateway plan that includes the airport,” which the city plans to expand and make a major cargo hub, he said.

“It’s quite a nice enhancement. (The parkway) will be, over time, one of the nicer entrances to the city.”

The second phase of the enhancement efforts — budgeted at $700,000 in infrastructure money, from all three levels of government combined — will involve extensive tree and shrub planting from the 401 to Oxford St.

There will ultimately be more than a dozen “features” added that are dedicated to military veterans.

The former Airport Rd. was renamed to honour military veterans in 2006.