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I-29 between the Tea exit and 41st St. is the worst part of the interstate system in Sioux Falls and it has not been reconstructed. Very bumpy and should be three lanes on each side with the traffic there, but this stretch should be worked on in the next couple of years. Driving on it a lot, I wish that it would be fixed sooner.
Sioux Falls, overall, has decent roads and a majority of its roads are in decent shape. The area around the Empire Mall (to me) seemed to be hodge-podged, but hopefully the new retail area in the east will be better planned. SD 100 will be widened next year from Madison St. down to a half mile past 26th St. (some of the work was done last fall). This will be nice when Target, Best Buy and other retailers come to that area in the next few years. The road will be built in phases.
I-29/I-229 interchange will get reconfigured in the future and 69th St. will get trown into the mix. There is growing momentum for an 85th St. exit between the Tea exit and the I-229 exit on I-29. Marion Road exit off I-90 will get built soon.
Sioux City has narrow interstates. I have been through there many times and there are too many access points downtown. When there is road construction in downtown Sioux City, I-29 is a nightmare to drive through.
The worst stretches of interstate would be I-29 south of Omaha and I-70 in Missouri (full of potholes) from my observations. I remember them being rough and a person needs a pack of bubble gum. Some freeways in Minneapolis in the inner cities are terrible (I-35 E in St. Paul). I-76 in Eastern Colorado was horrible just west of Nebraska when I was a kid.
I drove through Rapid City, but do not have a strong opinion about its road system but get confused somewhat inside town. This may be due to me being used to roads being laid out in a grid pattern.
Des Moines, I think has decent interstates but some of their main roads are in iffy shape. Omaha has a nice road system, set in a grid pattern and is easy to get around in a city of its size. Wichita is nice on the Kansas Turnpike but OK elsewhere including I-135 (going to Salina). I like Kansas City (easy to get around), but rough and bumpy on I-70. St Louis is mixed for road conditions but everything converges in the downtown area more or less crossing the I-70/I-64/I-55 bridge (can be a nightmare to cross when there is heavy traffic). Denver (E-470), but despise Minneapolis freeways but do OK with the roads in the Bloomington area.
Kentucky, New York, Illinois, Indiana, and Wyoming have good roads when I went through them. South Dakota has decent roads and is not the best but is certainly not the worst.
SoDak is in great need of a short cut through the badlands to Custer, completely by-passing Rapid City.
It is an intersting idea. There would be more of the Badlands and eastern Black Hills to see that way. It would certainly help with improving local transportation options in the Wall and eastern Custer County areas.
I thnk that the Heartland Expressway, once it is completed or is close, will benefit tourism and commerce in Western South Dakota. It should be done in a way to preserve the integrity of the local communities and environment, but allow for orderly development of toursit trade, local growth, and commercial growth. This where the communities and the business community need to get together and develop plans or visions that will guide their communities in the right direction.
South Dakota, for it being 46th in the nation, has a decent system of roads and the roads have served me well in my expereinces going across the state. I feel with the expanision of several key roads such as 81, 83, 12, and better connections to Denver, Des Moines, and Minneapolis will give South Dakota a chance to better compete with other states and be good from a business and a motorist convenience standpoint. Combine that with entruepeneurship, economic development, and planning, it will bring opportunities to the state and will allow future South Dakotans (including those in rural areas) to have a chance for opportunities and good living. I am not suggesting a Californication of South Dakota, but we need to do what we can to save our smaller towns (and give them another avenue to be economically stable) and allow our larger towns to continue to grow at a strong and steady rate.
South Dakota has a lot of untapped potential and it takes creativity, innovation, and a sense of entrueneurship to tap into it and benefit the people in South Dakota with better paying jobs, economic stability, opportunities for our graduates and experience workers alike, and a more vibrant economy with a promising future. It will also help the USA with additional products useful to the everyday life (energy) along with safe, stable, and clean energy sources (wind and cellulosic ethanol). Also, research can easily be done to find a number of uses for agricultural products to enrich the everyday life and opprortunties of Americans. This can be done in respect to food and other applicable everyday products. With a "can do" attitude, I think South Dakota can be a shining star and resurrect the great and eduring spirit of optimism and hope that the state's homesteaders in the late 1800s and early 1900s had.
I find that some of the posts in Iowa and Nebraska regarding roads are interesting and talk about I-80.
I think that the extension of US 20 from Ft. Dodge, IA to Sioux City, IA as a four-lane road will benfit South Dakotans who are going east to Iowa's cities, Chicago and other points eastward. It will be nice avoid busy I-80 until either Des Moines or Iowa City. South Dakota need to have a vision of where it would like to be in the future and how it can better connect with other areas to have more advantages with economic development and transportation ease.
I think that South Dakota needs to upgrade some of its existing roads (such as US 12 and US 81) but the shortcut through the badlands may not be needed.
South Dakota, especially in the Black Hills does a decent job of providing convenient and practical interestate access while offereing a scenic view in the meantime. It is neat to see the Badlands from I-90 (even if it is the tip of the iceberg for the Badlands) and parts of the Black Hills outside the urban areas. Yes, it may take more miles and a little bit more time to go through Rapid City to get from the Badlands to Custer. Rapid City is not hard to drive through and is a breeze compared to some of the cities where I went through last summer in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia.
The Iowa DOT was supporting an interstate loop...current I-129 would loop northward, then westward back to I-29 near North Sioux City...but then Governor Janklow did not support...I really think that would have been a boost to the area down there...
Highway 42 between Sycamore Avenue in Sioux Falls and the Iowa border needs an upgrade...its the works I think...hopefully it happens soon...there's been too many accidents along that stretch.
The Iowa DOT was supporting an interstate loop...current I-129 would loop northward, then westward back to I-29 near North Sioux City...but then Governor Janklow did not support...I really think that would have been a boost to the area down there...
Highway 42 between Sycamore Avenue in Sioux Falls and the Iowa border needs an upgrade...its the works I think...hopefully it happens soon...there's been too many accidents along that stretch.
I have heard about the first part and I though that it is typical bullheadedness of Janklow. I think that the idea can get resurrected. It would be a nice to have and I would certainly take it when going to Omaha to avoid downtown Sioux City.
The second part. SD 42 is being widened from the Wal-Mart/Menards area to near the Willow Run golf course this cominng summer in conjunction of widening Powderhouse Road from 1/2 mile south of 26th St. to Madison St. This is used to get start the beltway and get the area ready for the commercial growth. This area will take off like crazy once the widened roads are in place. The other parts will be widened down the road and there has been a study by DOT done on this strech of road.
North of SD 42 and Six Mile Road is where Galleria at River's Bend development will come in. The development has 300 plus lots for upscale housing and park areas along with an outdoor shopping mall with room for several large tenants and room for smaller shops. It will be interesting once it gets going. The housing part is generating a lot of interest, especially with out-of-staters moving in.
I cannot wait until the stretch between the Tea exit and the 26th Street exit on I-29 gets fixed. I would like to see an extra lane. It should have an extra lane and has just as much, if not more traffic, than I-29 between Russell and 60th St. North (which is four lanes on each side of the interstate).
I agree... Bad decision on Janklow's part....at least the Iowa DOT is planning on reconstructing and widen I-29 through Sioux City...but according to their website, it won't happen for a few years...pending highway funds...
And I see they are already constructing this beltway, between Arrowhead Parkway and 26th Street along Powderhouse Road...mostly dirt work, but they did it in conjunction with the 26th St improvements for the new elementary school.
And the east side will be booming...really seems upscale...
And according the SDDOT website (the STIP plan), I-29 between 26th Street and the Minnehaha/Lincoln County border (57th Street) won't be worked on until the summer of 2011..
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