Driving Into Downtown Minneapolis? Be Ready For Construction Headaches
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- There's a good chance your drive into downtown Minneapolis is about to get a lot more frustrating.
The Minnesota Department of Transportation is closing several ramps to and from Interstate 94 into downtown. That's on top of projects it's already posted closures for.
It seems as soon as the weather gets nice and you want to get out and about, you can't. Orange cones and barrels are everywhere. The next three weekends will be like that on the west side of downtown Minneapolis.
Consider the good news first: It's the final year of the I-94 rebuild project. But for the next three weekends, good luck getting around. The freeway will be closed between I-394 and I-35W.
"There's a lot of orange cones out, it's a little crazy along 94 at the moment," Allison Fahy said.
And about to get a lot crazier. Starting Friday night, getting around the west side of downtown will be downright difficult.
"It's going to be tricky for us, I work downtown so getting in and out is going to be a little more complicated and then we always have things to do, places to go out on 394 in the summer," Fahy said.
Weekend closures are needed to paint and re-deck the Whitney Pedestrian Bridge linking Loring Park to the sculpture garden.
"I was going to take it here today but I had to walk around," Diego Juarez said.
Diego Juarez got his architecture degree on Wednesday and is done with school. He's also done fighting traffic.
"I try not come here on weekends because of the traffic and stuff, but if I was going to school I would," Juarez said.
MnDOT is giving motorists two options. Both will add more time and miles to your trip. You can hop the crosstown to Highway 100 up to 694, or from the east, use I-35W to 694.
"Just by the looks of things on a Wednesday morning, we're out now and how heavy the traffic was, and how slow it was, it's going to get a lot worse," Fahy said.
The closure happens at 10 p.m. Friday and is lifted 5 am Monday. Again, that will be the case each weekend until May 21.