Phase one of the highway 75 reconstruction project through Sioux Center will be begin soon. Sioux Center City Manager Scott Wynja says a pre-construction meeting was held with the Department of Transportation and construction partners last Wednesday. The DOT says signage will go up the first week of April for Phase one of the project that stretches from 20th St. SE to 13th St. SE. “Appropriate signing will be placed at intersections including 20th Street South where there’s going to be a new stoplight, and by 16th Street as we start demolition construction in that area. There’s a lot of traffic through there. So a lot of signage.” says Wynja.
The following week crews will begin underground work and removal, with the bulk of work beginning the middle of April. He says utility work is a big piece of the project, and a lot of that work will be done first. “We’re gonna see demolition on one side of the highway, but they might be doing some utility work on both sides of the highway simultaneously. So it’ll be a lot of activity on that stretch of road.”
Wynja urges motorists not to be distracted by the work, and to pay attention to the signage and other motorists. “Don’t get caught looking watching construction, pay attention to where you’re going, follow the signage as best you can.”
Wynja stresses patience for motorists as the project gets underway. The plan includes keeping one side of the highway open, so access will be available throughout the construction of phase 1. “We have phases of the project, and we also have phases within the project. So while they’re doing work on the on the west half the road, we’ll have head to head two lanes of traffic on the east side of the road. Once we’re finished with construction on the west side, we’ll shift that traffic to the west side with two lanes of traffic while we start doing removals and demolition on the east side.”
He says congestion will be something motorists will have to contend with, but Wynja says construction of the new road from Snap Fitness north to 13th St. will ease some of that, especially at the highway 75 and 16th St. intersection. He says the new road should be complete by July 1, with phase one of the highway project likely to be complete by June of next year. “This project will probably go all the way to June of 2024. We certainly anticipate that a lot of the major construction paving of the four lanes, which would include the the new stoplight at 20th street, would be up sometime yet this fall.”
Wynja assures residents along the highway that all services will continue during construction; garbage pickup, mail service, and access will continue. Phase one will end with the streetscape and beautification work along the route and in the medians.
- April – Highway traffic (northbound and southbound) shifts to east side of existing highway pavement from 20th St. to 13th St. S. and construction begins on the west side. Utility work also begins. Construction will be staged to allow for two-direction traffic (one lane each way) through most of the work and to maintain at least one access to the businesses in the Walmart area throughout construction.
- Mid-Summer– Newly-paved 13th Street S. and 2nd Ave. S. opens. Work on 16th Street S. begins.
- Fall – Highway 75 traffic shifts to new west side pavement. Work begins on east side.
- Late fall – Paving east side of Highway 75.
- Spring 2024 – Median paving and landscaping.
The second phase of the Highway 75 redesign is planned for 2024-25 and will stretch from 13th Street S. to 12th Street N.
