Sioux Falls, South Dakota, lies in the southeast part of the state near the border of Minnesota and Iowa. With a population of over 200,000 and another 100,000 people in the surrounding counties, it is the fastest-growing metro area in the Midwest (among areas of 50,000 or more). As the population grows, so does the need to expand and improve infrastructure, like the South Veterans Parkway. An ongoing project on the parkway is a partnership between the South Dakota Department of Transportation (SDDOT) and the City of Sioux Falls, with John Riley Construction as the general contractor.
In the early 1990s, the City of Sioux Falls worked with the Sioux Falls Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), which is responsible for developing and maintaining key documents for the transportation planning process. They conducted a study to determine the transportation needs of the Sioux Falls Metropolitan area.
The study identified a need for a network of high-speed arterial corridors to traverse around Sioux Falls to improve traffic flow, serve the Sioux Falls growth areas, and minimize congestion. Hence, the South Veterans Parkway, which will connect Interstate 29 to Interstate 90 through the remaining 8.7 miles of Veterans Parkway.
The City of Sioux Falls worked with SDDOT and the Federal Highway Administration to complete an Environmental Assessment to establish a 200-foot-wide corridor. By agreement, after the corridor is constructed by SDDOT, the corridor jurisdiction will be transferred to the City of Sioux Falls, which will maintain the corridor.
The project at hand is a 2-mile portion of the entire 17-mile Veterans Parkway. The other half of the parkway is known as North Veterans Parkway, and the whole route is Veterans Parkway. The project is the first of four segments. The others are in final design and right of way acquisition. They are scheduled to be built over the next four years.
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Mike Heiberger, Principal Engineer for the City of Sioux Falls, said that upon completion, South Veterans Parkway will:
- Reduce congestion on arterial routes going through the middle of Sioux Falls
- Accommodate future growth of the east side of Sioux Falls
- Prepare for the transportation system needs for 2050 that are consistent with other public infrastructure growth investments
- 22,000 feet (4.2 miles) of storm sewer pipe
- 6 miles of fiber-optic cable
- 17.4 miles of wire
- 2,200 pounds of grass seed
- 98,000 tons of gravel
- Owner: City of Sioux Falls; South Dakota Department of Transportation
- General Contractor: John Riley Construction, Morris, Minnesota
- Designer: HDR Engineering, Omaha, Nebraska
- Engineer: HDR Engineering, Omaha, Nebraska; Sayre Associates, Sioux Falls, South Dakota; GeoTek Engineering & Testing, Sioux Falls, South Dakota
- Other Key Contractors: T&R Contracting, Inc., Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Grangaard Construction, Interior, South Dakota; Action Electric, Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Double H Paving, Inc., Tea, South Dakota; Dakota Traffic Services, Inc., Tea, South Dakota; Guardrail Enterprises, Inc., Hartford, South Dakota
Because this is a greenfield project, issues such as right of way have required attention.
“A unique delivery method is being used for the design, right of way, and construction inspection,” Heiberger said. The method is called Program Management, which allows one team to work on the entire 8-mile corridor simultaneously. Instead of requesting proposals for four separate designs/projects, SDDOT and the City of Sioux Falls opted to package the four projects together and put out one request for proposals.
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Utilizing one team to provide the entire package reduced the amount of coordination between projects as well as assured consistency from plan set to plan set. HDR Engineering was awarded the design on the entire four-project package and has also coordinated right of way acquisition and utility coordination with the design process. The design on the four projects has run concurrently and required prioritizing the delivery of the projects.
Heiberger estimates that if the project was delivered in a more traditional project management delivery method, it would take an additional two to four years.
The City of Sioux Falls and SDDOT worked collaboratively to purchase land adjacent to the corridor for the purpose of meeting the project’s borrow needs of 1.2 million cubic yards of dirt to build. There were regional drainage studies completed, and three regional detention ponds were constructed to serve both water storage and stormwater quality needs. The areas were used as borrow sites for the project and then turned over to the city to maintain the areas.
Upon completion, the finished roadway section will have three lanes per direction, a 32-foot raised median separating the travel lanes, a shared-use path along the south side of the parkway, and a grass boulevard separating the path from the roadway. The average daily traffic on Veterans Parkway is projected to be 25,000 to 35,000 by 2050.
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To make way for the new roadway, the team moved a significant amount of dirt. They have removed 1.2 million cubic yards of earthwork — which is equivalent to 97,000 dump truck loads of dirt — along with 104,000 cubic yards of concrete. This is for 15 lane miles of concrete and is almost equal to the concrete in two Empire State Buildings, Heiberger said. He credits the contractor for the work.
“John Riley Construction [prime contractor] has assembled a great team of subcontractors and brought the manpower and equipment to efficiently and effectively complete this large-scale project,” he said.
The general contractor has also coordinated the construction of the 172-foot prestressed concrete girder bridge for mainline South Veterans Parkway that will span over 85th Street.
Other large numbers of the project include:
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The project also involves constructing three arterial street intersections. Three regional detention ponds were developed with the project to help with stormwater quality and conveyance within the City of Sioux Falls. Finally, the team is installing a 12-foot by 10-foot box culvert, which will double as a pedestrian underpass.
The contractor had dry summer weather and was efficient while moving the borrow for the bridge embankments. Keeping control of the dust and construction noise were challenges due to the proximity of adjacent neighborhoods and balancing their expectations with construction work.
To make the Program Management delivery method work, teams need to establish effective communication. This project required collaboration between multiple organizations, funding sources, and transportation networks.
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One of the key partners is the general contractor. John Riley Construction, based out of Morris, Minnesota, has worked in the area before as they served as the general contractor for the northern section of Veterans Parkway that connected to the Interstate 90 interchange.
“Riley has been a great fit for the size and magnitude of this project,” Heiberger said. “They did a quality job of assembling a solid group of subcontractors to get the job done in a timely fashion and within budget.”
The construction budget for the project is just over $49.5 million. The Federal Highway Authority is paying over $33 million or 67 percent, while the City of Sioux Falls ($8.94 million) and SDDOT ($7.35 million) are paying for the remainder. Currently, the project is on budget. Heiberger credits this to an organized prime contractor who works seamlessly with subcontractors and the construction administration team to deliver a quality project within budget and on time.
Construction began in spring 2023 and is scheduled to be substantially complete by November 2024. However, the fieldwork completion date is summer 2025. As of now, the project is trending to be ahead of schedule.
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“The contractor’s scheduling, coordination, attention to details, long hours logged, and identifying pinch points in the schedule all contributed to the positive outcome,” Heiberger said.
When the South Veterans Parkway roadway is completed, it will reduce current traffic congestion and meet future transportation needs. “Commuters will be able to traverse around the city versus through the city,” Heiberger said.
It will also allow a multimodal transportation network to be established for the southern portion of the city and be a safe and efficient route for neighboring communities to access the City of Sioux Falls’ services. Finally, the parkway extension is expected to spur economic and residential growth and development along the Veterans Parkway corridor.
“It’s very rewarding to see construction starting on phase one of this major project,” Heiberger said. “Obviously, construction is the last step of a process that started over 30 years ago. A lot of work from numerous individuals across three decades has enabled us to get to this point.”
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