This was in my email box this morning from a South DaCola foot soldier, in reference to SD HWY 100;
Not sure if you saw the recent local news stories about SD100 (council meeting), but the first thing I heard this morning when I turned on my TV was Kasey Wonnenberg from Kelo reading a prompter (probably typed up by reporter Jared Ransom) saying that SD 100 had an expected completion date of 2018. I about choked on my Cheerios because that is completely incorrect.
If you saw the KDLT or Argus stories they correctly reported that the recent State DOT/City resolution and time-table discussed last night pertained to the eastern portion of SD100 from 57th St. running north to I-90. Those entities correctly reported that there is no expected date of completion for the southern portion of SD 100 yet, in fact, there isn’t even any money to get that portion built at all right now.
At an estimated $200 million to finish just the eastern portion, God only knows how expensive the southern portion will be when the State hasn’t even purchased all of the necessary easements and ROWs yet.
The SD 100 plan is 20 years old. Why should that matter you ask? How many 20 year old cars do you see on the road today? How many 20 year old computers do you see being used in your office? How many 20 year old phones do you see people talking on?  My point? This plan was concocted at time that preceded record growth in Lincoln County and southern Sioux Falls. How many times did we read in the Argus or hear on the local news that Lincoln County was consistently ranked as one of the fastest growing counties in the nation? The answer, A LOT. Nowhere else in Sioux Falls has the SD100 plan been rendered obsolete so quickly as it has in southern Sioux Falls and northern Lincoln County.
The smart play would be to figure out a way to pay for the at least $200 million of the portion being built from 57th to I-90 first, THEN figure out a way to pay for the $4.7 million per mile the State says it will cost in today’s dollars to maintain it for the next 40 years. Only when that has happened should anyone talk about building the southern portion of SD100. When you do get to that point, take a good hard look at county highway 106, you know, the one that already runs to the Tea Interchange at I-29, which is the final destination for the southern flank of SD100. That same county highway already has the necessary easements and ROW’s it will take to get this project done.
In the meantime, ask yourself why 49th Street hasn’t been completed running from Minnesota to Western, or why we continue to have dozens of cars waiting at red lights when there are is literally not one single car moving through the green light portion of the intersection. We have pot-holes all over town and will continue to have pot-holes that require costly maintenance. We have year to year infrastructure maintenance that falls behind further every day all over this city. Let’s improve the infrastructure we ALREADY have first and, here’s a novel idea, pay for it, before we over-extend taxpayers with the current build first and ask the hard questions later policy of MMM and his administration.
DL’s Note: I would agree, I am afraid all of this annexation and expansion is unsustainable. When we have to start borrowing money to maintain infrastructure, that’s not good. That’s like going to a check cashing place every month to pay your mortgage, eventually you will be behind the 8-Ball.   Â
You hit the nail on the head here. Great post.
Unfortunately, this is just business-as-usual in the suburban sprawl world. StrongTowns has an amazing primer on how and why this happens.
You need growth to pay for maintenance on what you have (because it can’t pay for itself).
To get growth, you have to build super-sized roads at the edge of town.
To build those roads, you need to borrow or get money from somebody else (the state or the Feds).
Rinse and repeat, since you now have more sprawl that can’t pay for itself.
Note that this is a feature of the suburban paradigm, not a anomaly. A lot of it has to do with the fact that when we develop new areas, we build them in what we think of as a final state. It can’t ever, ever change! Those single-family houses can’t ever become duplexes! That corner gas station can’t ever mature into a mixed-use neighborhood center!
When you build at low densities, and never allow neighborhoods to grow or mature after they’re built, then the only way to get that growth that we need (or maybe we’re addicted to) is to grow out.
My car is 26 years old – not a cheap American way one though. I have a server that has been running 24/7/365 for 15 years now. Still works great.
Have an “extension” phone in the basement that’s gotta be 40 years old. (Old “princess” model).
Highway 106 ROW is NOT wide enough to accommodate a 4 lane divide road. It also has a LOT of businesses and residences along it. Purchase price to move SD 100 there vs. across farm land – ……. go figure it out.
On the other hand, the growth/development patterns Tom refers to are there to accommodate the 30-year mortgage cycle – I.E. financial institutions’ interests – not anyone else’s. Like all things American – $$$ is king.
BTW – SMART public infrastructure (see Portland, OR)is VASTLY superior to 19th/20th century public infrastructure of all types.
Hwy 100 2011 update of MN Ave to I-29.
http://www.sddot.com/transportation/highways/planning/specialstudies/docs/SD100Display2011Segment0.pdf
They aren’t using much of 106 in their present plan mostly farmland.
rufusx – totally agree with the cash is king comment. I rode my Harley west of Louise on 93rd st. Rows and rows and rows of the same expensive homes 15 feet apart. I guess that is how it is here. I did not know that addition existed until two weeks ago.
The “interior” roads of Sioux Falls are overloaded and disastrous. As fun as it would be to build a sharp new Hwy 100 in the east part of town we have roads like Minnesota Ave, Louise Ave, 41st St, 10th/11th Sts, 26th St, 26th St/I-229, all are pushed way hard. Some are “too big to be a street but not big enough to be a highway”. Couple in the fact that everyone speeds on these roads and it’s just a mess. Supposedly 41st/Louise is the busiest intersection in all of SD. Usually when we point at a “busiest intersection” somewhere it is a major highway intersection with divided grade restricted access. We probably can’t make these into highways. But the roads definitely need some expansion.
Fittingly, in Minneapolis “Hwy 100” was the wave of the future! It was built as a WPA project in the 1930s through the middle of what was at the time the country (not too much different from where SD’s Hwy 100 would go). As time went on the whole area around Hwy 100 in Minneapolis grew tremendously and was quite a success story. Could SD’s Hwy 100 someday bring the same kind of success? Perhaps. But we need to fix up what we’ve already got.