New traffic signals planned this season in Sioux Falls, plus lane changes on Veterans Parkway

Veterans Parkway is about to travel differently as more lanes are added, plus new traffic signals will be installed in various areas of Sioux Falls this year.

As the most recent road improvements wrap up on Veterans Parkway between 18th and 57th streets, crews will begin marking the pavement differently with new lane striping.

“This has been a couple years in the making,” said Heath Hoftiezer, traffic engineer with the city of Sioux Falls.

“We changed a lot of signal heads to meet (state) policy for high-speed intersections about a year ago … and now starting July 20, we will go restripe most of Veterans.”

The striping will accommodate an additional travel lane and dual left-turn lanes at select intersections. The improvements are designed to reduce congestion, improve intersection operations and enhance traffic flow.

“We’re adding quite a few lanes through pavement markings, and that will be huge for everybody,” Hoftiezer said.

Ultimately, it will be three lanes each way from just north of 57th Street all the way to Interstate 90.

Once the pavement markings are done, the traffic signal project will include placing new signal heads into operation to match the updated lane configuration. It’s expected to be done later this summer.

“And once things wrap up more at Arrowhead (and Veterans parkways) and we get traffic going east-west and the detours shut down, we will retime the whole Veterans corridor and coordinate everything,” Hoftiezer said.

Other new signals going up in the city are in newer sections of the expanded Veterans Parkway — at the intersections with Southeastern and Sycamore avenues.

In southwest Sioux Falls, additional signals will support the area around the future 85th Street interchange, with one at 85th Street and Tallgrass Avenue, as well as one at 57th Street and Sundowner Avenue.

More signals also are planned in northwest Sioux Falls at 60th Street North and Career Avenue, which likely will be done next year, and one on Minnehaha County Road 130 and Marion Road near the future Smithfield Foods.

The city traffic division also continues to monitor traffic in real time and make adjustments to signal timing during construction.

“We have a lot of extra east-west time (on Madison and 41st streets) to make up for Arrowhead. That’s our big project for the summer,” Hoftiezer said.

Traffic officials also have been making adjustments on Minnesota Avenue to compensate for lane closures on Cliff Avenue related to the interchange project at Interstate 229.

“We’ve been opening up Minnesota even more,” Hoftiezer said. “And we’ve done a few things downtown to counteract Minnesota and Eighth Street, which had a little more impact with the closure (at Weber Avenue), but everybody is still getting in and out of downtown.”

Road Report: July 13, 2026