Brace yourself: Construction begins next week on I-394 in Minneapolis

With road construction seemingly everywhere, driving on Twin Cities freeways this spring and summer has been unforgiving, and perhaps downright exasperating.

Well, buckle up, because as the Ginsu knife commercials from the 1970s said: “There is much much more.”

Next Monday, MnDOT begins a new bridge and pavement repair project on Interstate 394 and Interstate 94 on the west end of downtown, essentially creating a giant cone zone stretching from Dunwoody College to the University of Minnesota.

The $70 million endeavor overlaps with bridge work on I-94 that has traffic squeezed into two lanes across the Mississippi River and created big backups since May.

Motorists on I-394 will endure off-peak lane closures for the first two weeks until July 28, sort of a warm up to what’s to come, said Tim Nelson, director of construction for MnDOT’s Metro District.

That is when the reversible EZ Pass lanes on 394 between downtown and Hwy. 100 will shut down until October, putting an additional 5,000 vehicles a day in three general travel lanes in each direction that will remain open.

“Plan ahead, work earlier or later, work from home,” Nelson suggested about how to avoid additional motoring misery that has ensnared drivers on I-94 and Interstate 494, highways 10 in Ramsey, 61 in St. Paul and 52 in Inver Grove Heights, and numerous city and county roads in recent months.

As for using an alternate route, Hwy. 55 would normally work. Only that road too, will be under construction. MnDOT is repaving the highway and replacing a railroad bridge near Wirth Park that “is in really bad shape” and couldn’t be pushed off another year, Nelson said.

“We didn’t want to have to put load restrictions in place,” Nelson said of the project set to begin this month.

MnDOT’s isn’t tackling more projects than usual this season - 180 projects with a budget of about $1.1 billion. But, it may seem like construction is everywhere with so many projects concentrated in a small geographic area like along I-94.

“We started as late as we could [on 94/394] but there is only so much time in a construction season,” Nelson said. “Our goal is doing the work for people, not against them.”

Crews will fix joints and put new decks on 34 bridges, all of which are nearly a half century old and showing their age, Nelson said. MnDOT hopes to give the bridges another 20 to 30 years of life and buy time to forge a long-term plan for dealing with the Lowry Hill Tunnel.

Next year, the agency will put westbound 394 traffic in the carpool lane for three months, then eastbound traffic as it completes the job in the fall of 2026.

The concurrent projects this year are part of a larger puzzle as MnDOT addresses wear and tear on old infrastructure. Once work on 394 and 94 is done, the agency will turn its attention to Hwy. 280, the Nicollet Avenue bridge over 94 and the University Avenue bridge over I-35W.

Ben Shardlow, chief of staff at the Minneapolis Downtown Council, said people may see the cones and construction as an inconvenience, but construction is necessary, he says, and not a reason to stay away from downtown.

“Be aware of the project, have a plan and give yourself time to get there,” he said. “Downtown is open. People are finding their way, and you can, too.”