City of Sioux Falls working to wrap up road construction

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) -With winter around the corner, different construction projects throughout Sioux Falls are wrapping up and businesses are excited.

Major construction in the city relies heavily on the summer months to maintain its roadways.

While necessary, it can be a pain for businesses surrounding the area.

Miles Cross is an area manager for Cricket Wireless.

He says he has felt the effect of construction throughout the summer months.

“I forget once every two weeks that I can’t go into Minnesota into our parking lot, so I must go all the way down to the courthouse and turn back around and come out the backway,” said Miles Cross, area manager for Cricket Wireless.

He says this is largely due to the main entrance being blocked off.

“It didn’t affect us to based then when we actually had people able to come in and out, but our traffic has been down, we have been getting a lot of foot traffic which is great,” said Cross.

He says other businesses in that strip have also felt these effects.

“The deli right next to us, I’ve seen its traffic dwindle, and I mean it is great food, it is great service, great people. I mean it’s been hard for all of us,” said Cross.

Principal engineer on the project, Brad Ludens, says businesses won’t have to wait too much longer.

“Viewers will see some of that concrete going down on Minnesota Avenue and we’ll have some other work to do yet there this fall but all lanes will be open to traffic on Minnesota Avenue here this fall. They might have to come back next spring and do some work on the center median and some of the landscaping and lighting stuff,” said Brad Ludens, City of Sioux Falls Principal engineer.

He says other projects around the city will also be completed before the snow hits.

“All of our projects are on time so as we’re looking ahead, each individual projects completion date might different a little bit but just in general all of pour projects are expected to be done yet this fall and all lanes open to traffic by the time winter comes,” said Ludens.

Ludens wants to remind people to use caution while driving through different construction zones.

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