The South Dakota Department of Transportation says the Highway 115 project is set to continue in Dell Rapids as soon as the weather cooperates. That message came from Travis Dressen, Sioux Falls Area Engineer for the SDDOT, during a community forum meeting held at River Community Church on Monday, March 26th. T&R Contracting will be the company that will be doing the work on the project.
“I think that interstate route will be one of the better routes to take from a convenience standpoint,” said Dressen. This comment was made as Dressen was explaining that the SDDOT has plans of doing shoulder work from the Colton road into Sioux Falls on Highway 115 southward. That work cannot start until mid June in hopes that the concrete overlay of the Highway 115 project is complete or nearly complete.
The concrete overlay portion of the project will run from 472nd Ave, which is where the interchange project stopped, eastward to about 473rd Ave. Once T&R Contracting starts the overlay portion of the project, they have 21 calendar days to finish the work. During that time there will be 24/7 operation with a flaggers and a pilot car. The contractor is hoping to begin the overlay portion towards the beginning of May, or sooner, if the weather cooperates.
The next section of construction will be the grading section which will start at 473rd Ave eastward towards the four-way stop. The section of roadway will be completely removed. There will be storm sewers installed in some spots as well as roadway lighting and new concrete pavement. As the road gets closer to the city, it will be a three-lane road with two driving lanes and a center turning lane.
The project will also include replacing the current structure over Rocky Run Creek. While replacing this structure, there will be a traffic-diversion road placed to the north of Highway 115 that will cause a new temporary intersection to be placed just north of the four-way stop. As of now that intersection will be a one-way stop, but Dressen said that if during the construction they feel a three-way stop is needed, the SDDOT would consider doing that. The diversion road construction can begin on April 30th.
The City of Dell Rapids will also be doing some coordinating with T&R Contracting during this project. The city will be doing water main work which will result in a temporary closure of Third Street at Highway 115. During that time the truck route will be temporarily moved to Fourth Street. The SDDOT will communicate the timing of this closure through press releases when the time comes to shut down the intersection.
The city also secured a grant to have a shared-use path installed with this project. The path will be installed on the west side of the road of Highway 115 that runs south of Dell Rapids and will tie into the existing path that was installed in 2016. As the highway turns west at the four-way stop, the path will be on the north side of the road.
Dressen also commented on the state of the bridge work that is currently being done on Highway 115 over the Big Sioux River at the meeting. He said the footings of the bridge is complete as well as the pier walls. He said that most of the work in the water has been completed. The contractors expect to be setting bridge girders sometime around mid April with a deck pour anticipated around the June time frame.
The substantial completion date for this project is November of 2018.
The Highway 115 project is a continuation of the of the project from the 2017 I-29 interchange project. In 2016 Highway 115 was completed along with the south bridge from the Colton road to River Road. The Garfield Ave bridge reconstruction project was completed in 2015 in Dell Rapids.