SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — The sound of a piece of heavy equipment snapping trees could be heard occasionally over the traffic on Cliff Avenue.

Trees on each side of Cliff Avenue need to be removed to make room for five lanes of traffic between 56th Street and Tomar Road. The additional lanes will make a four-lane for miles from the intersection with 85th Street to the north and past the intersection with 10th Street.

The section under construction this month is not far from Tomar Road and up the hill from Lincoln High School.

Lincoln High School was completed in 1965.

Two northbound lanes existed from 57th Street on but even with growth in population and traffic, it’s taken longer to get two southbound lanes from the I-229 interchange south to 57th.

The Crestview neighborhood developed along and east of Cliff Avenue without two full southbound lanes.

Those trees on the east side are much older than those being removed on the west side.

T & R Contracting will be removing the trees, said Adam Dalseide, the project manager for T & R Contracting.

Trees on the east and west side of Cliff Avenue won’t be the only removal.

Dalseide said a house that sits below Cliff Avenue, to the south of Tomar Road, will be removed for the construction project.

  • Cliff Avenue northbound lane near 56th Street. Some of the curb area on the east side has been removed.
  • Trees marked with red on the west side of Cliff.
  • The space created after trees were removed on the west side.
  • The west side slope of Cliff Avenue.
  • Looking to the north on Cliff Avenue where the street will be widened on the east side.
  • Cliff Avenue in October of 2021.
  • The northbound lanes of Cliff Avenue as construction started. The curb area had not been removed yet.

The trees and house will be removed on the west side so the contractor can build up a surface to provide space for the expansion of the avenue.

Fill will be added to the west side slope area.

City engineer John Osman described the adding of fill as a stair-step type project.

“We (will) be adding dirt and packing the dirt as we go to the (top),” Dalseide said.

“It is a tight spot,” Dalseide said of the work area, which will be along a slope that continues to what is a creek bottom.