Drivers Plan Alternate Routes As Lowry Hill Tunnel Closure Clogs I-94
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- If you're traveling in or out of Minneapolis this weekend, prepare for some construction along the way.
The Lowry Hill Tunnel projects start this weekend. Crews closed down the eastbound lane of 94 Friday night. It will be down to single lane traffic both ways starting Sunday at noon.
A lot of events going on this weekend around this closure. You've got Twin Cities Pride in Loring Park, the Food Truck Festival in uptown and the USA volleyball tournament at the Convention Center.
Those will draw hundreds of thousands of people to the city. As many of them found out Saturday, you may want to plan some extra time.
If you were heading west on 94 around downtown Minneapolis Saturday, it was smooth sailing.
But if you needed to go east...
"It was a lot of stop and go, stop and go, stop and go ," one commuter said.
Even people who drove in from the west got stuck in detour traffic if they were headed to the Pride festival, as many parked just south of downtown near the Lowry Hill Tunnel.
The eastbound lane of I-94 between 394 and 35W will remain closed until Sunday at noon.
Then, both lanes of traffic will be able to go through the tunnel in single lanes through the east side of the tunnel.
Trucks won't be allowed and the speed limit will be 40 miles per hour.
"It was no problem coming up 55, Franklin and then up to Nicollet," Barbara Else said.
Else did her homework ahead of making the drive from Rochester to downtown Minneapolis.
"I look up alternate routes I put them on a sticky in the car because I don't want to be looking at my cell phone -- be safe in the traffic -- and I listen to the news," Else said.
The ramp from I-35W to I-94W will be also be closed as part of the Lowry Hill Project, that should wrap up by mid-September
That gives you three months to come up with your best alternate route.
"There is construction all the time. That's the most frustrating part is construction," one commuter said.
If you want to get a check of the roads, click here.
