Stuck Waiting At E 10th & I-229? This Fix Could Change Everything

If you've ever found yourself trapped in a bumper-to-bumper nightmare on East 10th Street trying to turn onto I-229 on a Saturday afternoon, you know the struggle is real. That interchange is screaming for a facelift, and not the kind you get with fresh paint and good intentions.

Back when *NSYNC was still topping the charts and Sioux Falls had a few less zip codes worth of people, this interchange was rebuilt into what we see today. Fast forward 20+ years, and the city has ballooned in size, especially on the east side. Add a parade of big box stores to the mix, and you've got yourself a traffic recipe that’s half gridlock, half migraine. Hope you have some Excedrin in the car!

Now, I know overhauling an interchange doesn’t come cheap. But hear me out: what if I told you we already have the skeleton for a smoother setup? I'm talking about a Diverging Diamond Interchange, or DDI if you're into highway hip lingo.

Remember the chaos at 41st Street and I-29 before the DDI showed up like a traffic superhero? East 10th is basically living through the prequel. But here's the kicker; converting this mess into a DDI might be a lot easier than starting from scratch. From what I can see (and again, I’m just a guy on the radio, not a civil engineer), more than half the work might already be done.

Don't just take my word for it, look at the satellite phots and play armchair engineer for yourself. The layout's begging for a diamond, preferably the diverging kind.

And hey, once the Brandon DDI wraps up, maybe someone in the Sioux Falls traffic department can shift gears and take a serious look at East 10th. One thing's for sure: those bottlenecks aren't going anywhere unless we do something about them.

Because if we wait another 20 years, we might need hovercars to bypass the problem.