Inside Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg's tour of eastern South Dakota

CHAMBERLAIN — The Chamberlain Municipal Airport is nothing more than a few hangars, a former mobile home and one runway. It serves outdoor enthusiasts, and when medical emergencies occur to those living in rural central South Dakota, the airport serves as a medevac site to get people to one of Sioux Falls' hospitals quickly.

And thanks to federal grants from the Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration, the airport is about to get a much needed expansion.

DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg visited the airport Monday afternoon as part of a two-day visit to South Dakota to see progress on infrastructure projects on the eastern side of the state funded by the feds and not only impact local communities, like Chamberlain, but also the nation as a whole.

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Tuesday morning found Buttigieg, who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 with the moniker “Mayor Pete,” at a rest stop on Interstate 90 outside of Salem. He was there to meet with long-haul truckers and to announce DOT would be offering more than $80 million in grant funding for upgrades to highway safety.

Meeting local needs

The Chamberlain airport has two expansion projects in the works: one to expand the airport terminal, which is just a small mobile home, and one to expand the length of the runway.

The airport terminal project received $855,000 from the DOT as well as $731,902 in funding from the FAA. The City of Chamberlain is planning to apply for more funding to expand the runway.

The airport also received some funding from the state and from the City of Chamberlain, Clint Soulek, the Chamberlain City Administrator, said. But the federal grant allowed the construction of the new terminal to speed up the timeline.

Funding for the projects comes from the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure law, which dedicated funding to airports, roads, broadband access and more. Sen. John Thune, R-SD, voted against the bill and Sen. Mike Rounds, R-SD, was not present for the vote in the Senate. Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-SD, voted against the bill in the House.

Buttigeig met with the Chamberlain mayor, city council, Rep. Rebecca Reimer, R-Chamberlain and others. Soulek led Buttigeig on the tour of the 500-square foot airport terminal.

The one room terminal, built in the 1980s, features a couple of couches, one bathroom and an old-style phone to receive calls. Only a handful of people could fit in the room while Soulek explained to Buttigeig who the airport served. Buttigeig said it was important to invest in smaller, rural airports because not every airport is LAX but deserves the same attention.

The new terminal will be doubled in size, adding an additional bathroom and will become ADA compliant, Soulek said. And with the expanded runway, Chamberlain will continue to be able to have medevac services.

“As far as health care access, their planes are getting bigger,” he said. “And we're almost to the point where we won't be able to bring in those planes.”

Construction of the new terminal has already started and Buttigeig stood in front of the bones of foundation and gravel for the new building when he addressed reporters.

“What can really help an application stand out is if there's a demonstrated readiness to put the dollars to good work,” he said. “And another thing that scores a lot of points with us is a safety benefit. And needless to say, everything I've heard about from the medevac mission to just something as basic as ADA compliance is gonna make a lot of difference for people who might really count on it here.”

Providing safety for truckers who travel across South Dakota and the nation

On Tuesday, Buttigeig stood at a newly built rest stop a mile away from the east-bound exit on I-90 for Salem. As semi-trucks sped past the Secretary, he spoke about the needed upgrades for safe rest stops as well as needed improvements to roads and bridges across I-90.

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“I-90 is the longest Interstate in the country…It also represents the most highly traveled corridor in South Dakota and trucks account for nearly a quarter of that traffic,” he said, adding the highway was built more than 50 years ago and the section between Sioux Falls and Salem is one of the most dangerous, with more than 500 crashes recorded in five years.

People traveling west from Sioux Falls have probably noticed the miles of orange construction cones as the state DOT continues with necessary infrastructure upgrades. That construction is part of a $61.6 million infrastructure grant from the federal government to improve the interstate. The final phase of construction is expected to end in December 2024.

The rest stop, also funded with part of the grant, features 11 new semi-truck parking spaces as well as a sheltered picnic area and bathrooms. At night, it’s well-lit, something long-haul truckers find important to their safety.

Florence Hare, a citizen of the Yankton Sioux Tribe, has been a long-haul trucker for nine years. She says finding a well-lit and paved rest stop can be difficult.

“There's just a lack of places where you could pull a big rig into that’s safe and that has facilities,” she said, adding there needs to be more truck parking across the nation and in Canada.

If a rest stop isn’t well-lit, she worries about cargo being stolen from her rig or gas being siphoned. And if the stop isn’t paved or there’s large pot holes, equipment could be damaged.

Hare was able to give Buttigeig a tour of her rig, which is currently carrying multiple circuit breakers on their way to North Dakota to be used in an electrical substation.

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Easy access to bathrooms are also a concern for many truckers. Before the press conference, Buttigeig met with a dozen truckers to hear their concerns. Carmen Anderson, who’s been a long-haul driver for more than 30 years, told him about an experience she had at a loading area in Florida where there was only a portable potty for the truckers to use.

“That is really a pet peeve of mine,” said Anderson, a Sioux Falls resident and the first woman to win a Driver of the Year award. “Most of these places since COVID have shut down their access to their bathrooms. So they put a porta-potty out and expect us to use it but they don't ever clean them.”

Anderson added in some areas of South Dakota during the winter, rest areas close, making it more difficult to find a bathroom while on long stretches of road.

There’s currently legislation in Congress circulating to allow truckers to access bathrooms at shipping and receiving centers.

Hare said she’s confident that the infrastructure improvements will make trucker’s lives a bit easier. She’s already seen an increase in larger rest stops with more parking spots and better facilities.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: DOT Sec. Pete Buttgieg sees federal infrastructure projects in SD