South Veterans Parkway between Cliff and Southeastern avenues "is expected to open to traffic in November," according to the Pigeon605 Road Report for Oct. 12, 2026. Near Prairie Green Golf Course, that date completes a rebuild already months underway. Sycamore Avenue reopened in July and Southeastern Avenue reopened in August. Both were rebuilt as part of the same segment. The parkway itself is the last major piece to open, and the shared-use path beside it is still being connected.
The Streets That Came Back First
Most of the road changes near Prairie Green have already happened, one street at a time.
- July 2, 2026. The City of Sioux Falls scheduled Sycamore Avenue from 69th Street to 85th Street to reopen once that part of the project was finished.
- Aug. 6, 2026. Southeastern Avenue from Bison Trail to 85th Street reopened to traffic late that afternoon. The city listed the work as part of the Cliff to Sycamore segment.
- Sept. 29, 2026. The project's construction update said the interior barrier walls on the bridge were done. Crews were landscaping from the BNSF Railroad to Sycamore Avenue, and the segment was "on schedule for completion this fall."
- Oct. 12, 2026. The Road Report said work between Cliff and Southeastern was "nearing completion" and gave November as the expected opening month.
Taken together, the north-south routes past the golf course were finished before the east-west road that ties them together. The rebuilt Sycamore and Southeastern intersections have been open for months. The new parkway that crosses them has not opened yet.
The first segment of South Veterans Parkway, from Western Avenue to Cliff Avenue, opened to traffic in November 2024. If the current timeline holds, the second segment will also open in November, two years later. Both times, drivers' first weeks on the new road come just before the first snow.
What the New Road Looks Like
This segment is a new kind of road for the southeast side. The project's segment overview describes:
- Lanes: three in each direction, separated by a raised median
- Speed limit: 50 mph. One older FAQ page still says 55, but the project has since set the corridor at 50.
- Intersections: ADA-compliant traffic signals at Southeastern and Sycamore avenues
- Rail crossing: an overpass over the BNSF line between Cliff and Southeastern
- Path: a shared-use path along the south side of the parkway
- Pedestrian crossings: underpasses between Cliff and Southeastern, and between Southeastern and Sycamore
The rail overpass makes the biggest difference. Before, the BNSF line was something to wait at. On this stretch of the parkway, it passes underneath.
Sioux Falls Live reported the size of the project. Building this roughly two-mile stretch took 1.5 million cubic yards of dirt work. Paving its 14 lane miles took 84,000 cubic yards of concrete, which the outlet said would fill the pool at the Midco Aquatic Center 17 times. Crews also laid four miles of fiber optic cable, 6.5 miles of other wiring and 3.4 miles of storm sewer, and installed 120 light poles.
Those 120 light poles matter on November evenings. Once the parkway opens, a stretch of open land that has been dark at night will be lit.
The Path Is One of the Last Pieces
For people who walk, run or bike on the southeast side, the shared-use path and its two underpasses may matter more than the traffic lanes. They are also part of the remaining work.
The Sept. 29 project update said recreational trail construction would begin in October. It listed "trail connections" and site restoration among the jobs continuing "over the next several weeks." Sioux Falls Live described much of the remaining work as landscaping and trail connections before the parallel recreation trail could be paved later in October. As of the Oct. 12 Road Report, the work still underway between Cliff and Southeastern included:
- concrete barrier walls
- drainage structure extension
- shared-use path connections
- street lighting
- pavement sealing
- topsoil, seeding and landscaping
- striping
The underpasses explain why the path is worth waiting for. Someone on foot can get from the Cliff side past Southeastern and on toward Sycamore without stepping into a 50-mph, six-lane road. The project materials reviewed here do not name a connection to the city's existing Sioux Falls Recreation Trail. For now, it is best to treat the path as a new corridor of its own. Whether it eventually joins the wider trail network is still an open question.
What Is Still Unknown
Several things have not been settled, and they will shape the next few months.
The opening day. On Oct. 2, Sioux Falls Live reported that an exact date for opening the Cliff to Sycamore stretch "has not yet been announced." Ten days later, the latest report narrows it to November but gives no specific day.
What comes after. The same Sioux Falls Live report said the two remaining stretches of Veterans Parkway are still in design. The project lists Sycamore to 57th Street, the next piece to the east, for 2027 through 2029. The project's own pages disagree on the western piece, from I-29 to Western Avenue. One page says 2027 to 2028 and another says 2028 to 2029. Either way, after November the parkway will end at Sycamore for at least a couple of construction seasons.
The interchange to the west. Trips toward the interstate face their own construction. The city's Oct. 2 update on the I-29 and 85th Street interchange listed ramp grading and bridge piling in progress. It said 85th Street remained closed to through traffic between Tallgrass and Sundowner, with local access maintained. The project's listed completion date is Dec. 31, 2027. The new parkway makes the southeast side's east-west drive simpler. Getting onto I-29 at 85th will still mean working around construction.
Back on 69th Street
Prairie Green Golf Course at 600 E 69th St has its own fall schedule. The Sioux Falls Golf September 2026 newsletter encouraged golfers to play in the weeks before snow. It also noted that city-course greens are aerified each spring and fall. The newsletter's Fall Punch Pass expires Dec. 31, 2026. That is a pass expiration, not a closing date, and no 2026 season-end date for Prairie Green had been published at the time of writing.
For this part of town, the last weeks of golf season and the first weeks of the new parkway will likely overlap. In practice, that means a new signal at Southeastern, a lit stretch past the BNSF overpass and a path that is still being finished, all arriving just as the course winds down for the year.
If you live near Prairie Green and want to know how the new parkway figures into your property's value, Danielle Konechne can give you a confidential, carefully prepared estimate. Request your free home valuation, and she will walk you through what the current numbers mean for your home.
