SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — The 41st Street interchange near the Interstate 229 and Cliff Avenue exit will be changed under a plan between the city of Sioux Falls and the South Dakota Department of Transportation.
The 41st intersection will be moved to align with an entrance to Lincoln High School on Cliff.
“The 41st Street intersection is very close to the on ramp,” said Shannon Ausen with the public works in Sioux Falls.
Traffic waiting at the existing intersection of 41st Street and Cliff Avenue will back up to the north on Cliff Avenue as drivers wait to get on Cliff to the north or get onto 41st to go west or wait to enter the on ramp to I-229.
The turns will be improved and it will make the flow of traffic smoother with the 41st Street intersection change, Al Murra, of SEH Engineering, said in a project update on Youtube channel for the city of Sioux Falls.
The new intersection will be a controlled signal intersection.
The public can find out more about the planned intersection change and overall I-229 and Cliff Avenue interchange project in a 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday meeting at Lincoln High School.
One of the most common questions from the public, that Ausen is aware of, is when construction will start?
The final preferred construction plan will be presented to the public, Ausen said. Information from the environmental assessment will also be presented. The city and the South Dakota Department of Transportation will take public comments for a period of time.
After that, the final design plan can be approved and the city and state can receive bids on the project.
“I think the bids will be out, probably in the first quarter for 2025, in February or March,” Ausen said.
Construction would start in the spring of 2025.
The interchange project construction is slated to take two years. Yet, there is already construction work being done in the area.
A contractor is working on site preparation for the installation of a temporary bridge. SD DOT will use of one of its two temporary bridges on the project. The northbound ramp from Cliff to I-229 has been closed for the project.
Ausen said that temporary bridge will be installed this fall.
Contractors have been building up mounds of dirt along the south I-229 bridge on each side of Cliff Avenue as part of the temporary bridge part of the project.
The dirt is coming from the ramp and interchange area at Louise Avenue and I-229. The public may not see much of the work, because a lot of the work is happening on off-peak hours in the evenings.
Ausen said she has heard there have been questions about why there is a need for a temporary bridge.
The temporary bridge will allow for two lanes of traffic during construction, Ausen said. Two lanes of traffic in an existing I-229 bridge will also be open to traffic during construction.
Two lanes will be for southbound and two lanes will be for northbound I-229 traffic.
Ausen said it’s important to keep two lanes of traffic open in each direction so that traffic does not backup on I-229.
The project boundaries stretch from between Cliff Avenue and Minnesota Avenue and between 38th Street intersection on Cliff Avenue and just past the river bridge on Cliff Avenue on the the other side of the interchange.
The preferred design calls for the on-ramp intersections traffic signals to be under I-229, much like the I-29 and 12th Street interchange in western Sioux Falls, Ausen said.
