SIOUX CENTER—Sioux Center resident Gretchen Bruhn, her husband and their five kids could not access their driveway from late April to early May. Instead, they parked their car next to their neighbor’s house on a side street and walked to their home through his backyard.
Road closures on and near Highway 75 through Sioux Center are affecting businesses and residents. The construction is making businesses and homes along the closed segment more difficult to access, frustrating residents, customers and business owners.
Sioux Center with the Iowa Department of Transportation in April 2023 started working on redesigning 2.5 miles of the highway. According to Sioux Center’s website, improvements on the four-lane highway include center left-turn lanes, medians, sidewalks, utility work and new pavement. Their aim is to “offer safe pedestrian use and welcome travelers to our thriving community.”
The current section of the highway closed to through traffic April 3, and is scheduled to reopen in November. Each year, DGR Engineering plans to work from April to November until the project’s completion in 2026.
Local traffic can still access businesses and houses in the area, but through traffic has been rerouted.
“There have been a few hiccups along the way, but I’ve been able to work around it,” said Amanda Hall, owner of Barker Shop, a pet grooming business on the closed section of Route 75.
Because Hall’s business is by appointment, she has not seen a drop in sales, but she said that some customers have difficulty finding her shop in the construction zone. She is also concerned about the future center median preventing left turns from the driveway.
“We needed new infrastructure, and I think it’s good to do that,” Hall said.
Dr. Drew Ebel, owner of Core Chiropractic Center, has never lost access to his business. Customers have reached the parking lot from either the north or south, depending on the stage of the road work. The main effect on Ebel’s day-to-day life is that he has a longer daily commute and spends more time explaining to customers how to drive to his business.
Ebel has noticed a slight decrease in sales. But because he has only worked at the business for just over two years, he is unable to determine what is normal and what is from the construction.
He also enjoys watching the road work from his window.
“I actually kind of like it. I think heavy equipment machinery is fun,” Ebel said. “So I enjoy watching them out there.”
The road work has affected the day-to-day lives of Bruhn’s family. She said they avoid the construction by spending much of their time in the backyard and returning home after the road work has stopped for the day.
But Bruhn also said that it was difficult to carry groceries a longer distance and bought a garden cart to ease the load. When it was not raining, Ebel allowed Bruhn to park at his driveway across the street, which was closer. But when it did rain, the unfinished road was too muddy for Bruhn to cross.
“It’s been challenging for us as homeowners because we’ve gone a lot of days without access to our driveway,” Bruhn said. “So just as a busy family, it’s been hard to walk through our neighbor’s backyard.”
But Bruhn said that the construction crew is “making good progress.” She recognizes the importance of the project and the need for the highway redesign but also said the future median preventing left turns will be “kind of a bummer.”
“There’s been days that it’s been really frustrating, and I’ve been kind of like, ‘Ugh, this is taking forever!’” Bruhn said. “But I know that they’re doing what they can at this point to obviously try to get done.”
Jeremiah Yonemura of Concord, CA, is studying at The Master’s University in Santa Clarita, CA. He wrote this article while participating in the WORLD Journalism Institute’s College Course – a multimedia journalism boot camp hosted May 16-June 1 at Dordt University in Sioux Center.
