South Veterans Parkway Is Almost Open to Sycamore: What Changes on Your South Side Drive?

The new concrete runs about two miles, from Cliff Avenue east to Sycamore Avenue. In between, it climbs over the BNSF rail line on a bridge. Paving those 14 lane miles took 84,000 cubic yards of concrete, and Sioux Falls Live reported on October 2 that this is enough to fill the pool at the Midco Aquatic Center 17 times. The same report counted 120 new light poles, 3.4 miles of storm sewer and four miles of fiber optic cable.

Most of that construction is already in the ground. The bigger point for anyone who drives the south side is where the road stops. When this stretch opens, Veterans Parkway will end at Sycamore Avenue, and nothing east of there starts construction before 2027. For the next couple of years, then, the parkway's new east end is a short run of streets around Sycamore, 69th Street and Southeastern Avenue, not a loop around the city.

Where the project stands as of mid-October

The South Dakota Department of Transportation and the City of Sioux Falls said in late September that the segment was on track to open this fall. The official project site's September 29 update said the work still underway included concrete, safety installations, trail connections and restoration. According to the October 2 Sioux Falls Live report, crews were finishing the exterior barrier walls, including crash cushions and guardrails, and much of what remained was landscaping and trail connections.

As of that report, no opening date had been announced. The closest thing to a target is older. In a July 22 update, city engineers estimated traffic would be on the road in early November, with finishing work continuing into early 2027. In August, Sioux Falls Live reported that the project was on schedule and could open ahead of schedule. Treat any November date as a forecast until the city or SDDOT names a day.

What actually plugs in

This stretch extends a road you may already drive. The Western-to-Cliff segment opened in November 2024, with signals at Western Avenue, Minnesota Avenue and Cliff Avenue. The new piece carries the same route east from Cliff. Here's how the corridor looks once it opens:

The new segment adds only two signals, at Southeastern and Sycamore. Rail traffic goes under the bridge instead of crossing at grade. Southeastern is the only new place to get on or off between Cliff and Sycamore, so those two intersections are where the new connections are.

SDDOT describes the finished parkway as a six-lane, 50-mph arterial that runs parallel to I-229. That's the long-term plan. This fall's opening adds the middle section of the planned connection between I-29 and I-90. Neither end reaches an interstate yet.

Sycamore Avenue becomes the east end

Sycamore was also part of the reason this year felt like one long detour on the southeast side. The city reopened Sycamore Avenue between 69th and 85th Street to traffic on July 2, 2026. That rebuilt stretch of Sycamore is the road that will meet the parkway's new east end. Once the parkway opens, Sycamore links the new segment to 69th Street to the north and to 85th Street to the south.

There's one limit to keep in mind. The project materials describe the new segment by its endpoints, Cliff and Sycamore. They don't describe a direct parkway connection to 85th Street. For drivers coming from farther south, the route onto the parkway depends on which north-south street they already use. Sycamore is one option, and Cliff, which already has a signal on the open western stretch, is another.

The 69th Street places this stretch sits beside

Most of the newer businesses near this segment are on or near 69th Street, which runs just north of the parkway's path.

• Stadium Crossing, 69th Street and Cliff Avenue. This retail center includes The Back Nine Golf, which opened in 2025. SiouxFalls.Business described it as sitting just north of the Cliff connection to Veterans Parkway. The same report named Sioux Falls Christian School and Harrisburg Freshman Academy as nearby landmarks.
• The Human Bean, 2801 E. Jackson St. The chain's first Sioux Falls location opened in May 2025 along 69th Street, west of Southeastern Avenue, with drive-through and walk-up coffee.
• GreatLIFE Performance Center, 69th Street and Southeastern Avenue. In February, SiouxFalls.Business reported plans for a recovery lounge with a sauna and cold-plunge tanks, which GreatLIFE hoped to open in early spring. The 17,000-square-foot South Dakota FCA Performance Center next door was planning to open that February for K–12 sports training. Those were planned dates when the article ran, so check with either facility before planning a visit around a specific amenity.

Southeastern Avenue is the one new signalized access point in the middle of the segment, and it runs right up to the GreatLIFE and FCA corner. Stadium Crossing sits at the Cliff end, where the parkway already has a signal.

A path for walking and biking, still being finished

The Cliff-to-Sycamore segment includes a shared-use path, plus pedestrian underpasses between Cliff and Southeastern and between Southeastern and Sycamore. Sioux Falls Live reported that the parallel recreation trail was expected to be paved later in October, once the trail connections were done. That puts paving after the dirt and landscaping work and close to the expected opening. The path may be finished a little after the lanes are.

Two details are still open. The project's segment page says the path runs on the south side of the parkway in one place and the north side in another. We also couldn't find a public source showing exactly where the new path joins the city's existing Recreation Trail network, which covers more than 45 paved miles. The city's printable bike map is marked as updated in June 2022, so it doesn't show the new path yet. If you're planning a ride, check the trail in person or wait for an updated map rather than assuming it connects.

The next three years of the route

Since this fall's opening is only the middle section, the remaining schedule matters for any drive that goes past Sycamore or west of Western:

1. Fall 2026. Cliff-to-Sycamore opens to traffic, with finishing work possibly continuing into early 2027 under the city's July forecast.
2. 2027. Construction is set to begin on the stretch from Sycamore north to 57th Street. The project's segment page lists that work for 2027 through 2029 and includes rehabilitating the pedestrian underpass to Harmodon Park.
3. 2028. Work is set to begin connecting the Western Avenue end to the I-29 interchange. The segment page lists this work for 2028 through 2029, while a map on the project homepage shows 2027 through 2028.
4. 2029. The full parkway is expected to be drivable end to end. SDDOT estimates the total project cost at about $210 million.

The next segment will end at 57th Street and Veterans Parkway, where the nearly 100-acre Founder's Crossing campus was under construction in 2025. Its first phase planned about 40 villas for early 2026, and later phases through 2028 call for a Sanford clinic and a Lewis Drug. Those plans were reported in August 2025, so the timing of each phase may have changed since. Even so, once Sycamore-to-57th is built, that corner becomes the parkway's next junction.

For this winter, the change is smaller than the 2029 plan. You'll have a faster east-west route between Cliff and Sycamore, a new signal at Southeastern near the 69th Street businesses, and an east end at Sycamore Avenue, which reopened this summer.

If new road access on the south side is part of how you're weighing a move, or the timing of a sale, Berberich Real Estate Group can go through which streets the Cliff-to-Sycamore stretch connects and which segments are still on the 2027 to 2029 schedule. Schedule a consultation, and we'll start with the parkway map and the exact addresses you have in mind.