The interchange at the I-29 and Colman/Madison exit has gotten a lot brighter in the past couple of weeks. New highway lights line the on and off ramps as well as the overpass along Highway 34. It was a suggestion at a listening session three years ago that had highway officials taking a closer look at traffic patterns in the area and it didn’t take much for them to decide that it was time the area was better lit. Traffic volume along the corridor has been increasing steadily for years — a trend highway and local officials believe will only continue. The move was a matter of safety.
“We’re seeing changes with the growth in Sioux Falls and people branching out further,” said Travis Dressen, our regional engineer with the South Dakota Department of Transportation. “There is a lot of growth, we really didn’t see much of a slowdown during COVID. Development is still happening everywhere.”
Other projects are planned for Hwy 34 in and around the Colman and Madison areas in the coming years, Dressen said, including a reconstruction of the “urban section” of the highway in Colman. That project is slated to begin in 2025 and will run from just west of the cemetery to the Sioux Valley Energy corner.
