Nov. 5, 2020

Getting around town is gradually getting easier as some major road projects wrap up.

 41st Street

Anyone else been bracing themselves just trying to get to Costco?

You can celebrate: The stretch of 41st Street between Minnesota and Western avenues is done, newly overlaid and open for traffic in both directions, including the intersection of 41st and Western.

“It turned out terrific,” city public works director Mark Cotter said. “And not only is the pavement done, but the intersection is fully open to traffic with a lot more capacity, and it’s a lot safer. Plus, there’s an additional lane at Minnesota, a dedicated right-turn lane, as well as at 37th And Minnesota to really improve the capacity in that area.”

The city used an innovative new asphalt on the south three lanes  of 41st Street designed to make the pavement stronger, he added.

“So we’ll do a side-by-side comparison to the north two lanes to see how that functions. The last overlay we got 10 years (out of), so we’re hoping for the same here.”

57th Street

Another well-traveled road is a lot smoother now too. West 57th Street between Minnesota and Western avenues received an asphalt mill and overlay, curb and gutter repairs and accessible curb ramp improvements as well as a complete reconstruction in part of the area.

“57th Street is one of the most popular and well-traveled east-west corridors in Sioux Falls,” Cotter said.

“The pavement condition had deteriorated to a point a significant rehabilitation was needed to improve the driving surface. The segment between Batcheller Lane and the entrance to Georgetown on the River was reconstructed, and the hill was lowered by almost 2 feet to improve roadway and driveway sight distance in this area.”

Eighth Street bridge

Downtown residents, workers and visitors: The bridge is almost done.

Work on East Eighth Street and its bridge are on track for the area to open for traffic by the end of November.

“Winter came a little early, so we lost a few days, but we’ve got one more lane of pavement to pour, and the next thing is the balustrades, the precast concrete railings,” Cotter said.

“And as weather permits, more work will continue to take place, including lighting the arches. Journey is the general contractor, and they’ve been a great, strong local contractor to work with …and they do have into 2021 to complete it, but we should have the road open by the end of November.”

26th Street

East-siders, we know you’ve lived with this for literally years, but the end is in sight for the 26th Street expansion project.

“Our next milestone is to get Southeastern Avenue open, and we’ll be working on that throughout November,” Cotter said.

“Weather permitting, they’re working on the second half of the bridge, and all the girders have been set, the beams, and the crew is in town working to prep the deck for pouring. That will take several weeks.”

If the weather remains mild, there’s a good chance the deck will be poured yet this year, he added.

“That project has gone really well and took the long view to take the road over the tracks, so for daily commuters and first responders, they never will have to wait for a train again, and it’s just a lot safer approach,” Cotter said.

“Once the pour is done, they will have a lot of other work, and it will go into next year based on how we had two of our wettest years back to back in 2018 and 2019. That’s had an impact on the schedule.”

Overall, “we just want to say thank you to the drivers and adjacent business owners for their patience as we make these improvements to the roadway network of Sioux Falls,” he added.