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Interstate 94 Closures To Challenge Mpls. Drivers

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Road and ramp closures could make it difficult getting in and out of downtown Minneapolis this weekend.

Crews will shut down Interstate 94 in Minneapolis between I-394 and I-35W Friday night. It will be closed for the next three weekends from 10 p.m. Friday until 5 a.m. Monday.

Hennepin and Lyndale avenues will also be closed between Dunwoody Boulevard and Oak Grove Street.

Here's the detour: take Highway 100, to the Crosstown, to I-35W.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation is making repairs on the pedestrian bridge between Loring Park and the Sculpture Garden.

I-94 Road Closures
(credit: CBS)

And ramp closures will make matters worse for motorists.

"Any ramp that leads to and from the closed area is going to be closed," said MnDOT's Dave Aeikens.

He says the ramps from northbound Lyndale Avenue to Westbound I-94, eastbound I-394 to westbound I-94 and westbound I-94 to Highway 55 will all be closed.

"We'll also have a couple of city streets, Lyndale and Hennepin closed between Oak Grove Street and Dunwoody, those are going to be closed as well," he said. "There are some detours that send you onto city streets."

The work is part of the tail end of the I-94 Minneapolis-to-Brooklyn Center project that began last year.

Work has been completed on 48 bridges, the Lowry Tunnel and a nine-mile stretch of the interstate from Nicollet Avenue to Shingle Creek Parkway.

"We're going to need folks' patience and they can go to our website and see where the detours area," Aeikens said.

MnDOT is urging people to download its Minnesota 511 smartphone app, which gives real-time updates on road and ramp closures. It can even create a route around the closures for you.

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