Parking ramp taking shape at Sioux Falls airport

Head out to the Sioux Falls Regional Airport and you can see the changes coming from a distance away. 

Heading into winter, construction crews continue to make progress on a four-story $63 million parking ramp with 975 parking spaces and a skywalk connection to the airport terminal. Construction started in April and the completion date is now 12 months or less from being finished. 

“People are really surprised and really shocked at how far it’s progressed and how big it is,” Dan Letellier, the airport’s executive director, told KELOLAND News. “It does take up a lot of landscape but we are purposely paying a little bit more to make sure it’s not just a chunk of concrete.” 

Letellier said next year colored concrete precast will be added to the outside along with exterior lighting and two large video walls on each corner. 

“It’s pretty big and I think people will be pretty pleased when it’s done,” Letellier said. 

Letellier said construction crews are a few weeks ahead of schedule on the project and only a few sections of concrete still need to be poured. He said all the underground utilities are being installed and crews hope to pour more concrete on the ground level which wasn’t expected to happen until Spring 2024. 

“The construction cranes will be coming down here in the next couple of weeks because they’re kind of beyond the point that they’ll still need those,” Letellier said. “They’re going to be progressing on the front of the building that goes toward the parking garage where the skyway connection will be.” 

Plan ahead for airport parking 

With construction at the airport, officials want people traveling to use the parking dashboard on the airport’s website. 

Parking rates at the airport are $11 per day for the main long term lot and $9 a day for the economy lot. There’s an hourly rate of $2 per hour for both parking lots. On Tuesday, the long term parking lot was 98% occupied while the economy lot was 50% occupied. 

Letellier said the airport has added 500 spaces to its economy parking lot where crews are finishing installing a few final light poles. He said people will be parking farther away from the airport, but there are shuttles running back and forth every few minutes. 

“We have about the same number of spaces that we did last year,” Letellier said. Around the holidays and when parking is going to be at a premium, it wouldn’t hurt to get out here two hours before a flight.” 

People can also reserve an economy parking lot space ahead of time on the airport’s website. That option is on the parking page on the Sioux Falls airport website.   

“That’s another option that we’ve added recently,” Letellier said.