Drivers feel the pinch as I-94 construction rattles commutes and spills traffic onto city streets

After getting stuck in a mileslong traffic jam on Interstate 94 in Minneapolis earlier this week, Samuel Doten made a decision: He started riding his bicycle to work.

“It prompted me to get out of the car, get some exercise in and relax on a bike instead of being stressed in a car in gridlock,” said the 31-year-old south Minneapolis resident. “I’m going to be a bike commuter.”

Doten made the shift to avoid traffic snarls that have exasperated drivers traveling between Minneapolis and St. Paul this week as the Minnesota Department of Transportation began an extensive project to repair five bridges along I-94.

Both directions of the freeway over the Mississippi River will be constricted to two lanes each until November. Several ramps, including ones to and from downtown Minneapolis, are closed, but some will reopen in a month or two.

The changes have sometimes more than doubled commute times, turning 15-minute trips across the river into an hourlong headache during peak times.

“I-94 construction traffic thru [sic] minneapolis is bonkers,” posted one X user. “Reduced to two lanes both directions THROUGH THE FALL! There are no good alternate routes.”

One impatient driver was so fed up last Sunday that they drove their Honda Accord around the cones and into closed highway lanes to bypass stopped traffic only to be pulled over by a state trooper, to the delight of other drivers, according to another X poster.

Others, hoping to escape the highway, have fanned out onto nearby city streets in search of a faster trip. But motorists trying those detours have found a gridlocked Franklin Avenue, Lake Street, University Avenue and Marshall Avenue.

“There have been complaints about that,” said Josh Scholler, a manager at Zipps Liquors on 27th and Franklin avenues who said he’s started taking a different way to work himself to skirt the worst of the traffic. “People are still finding an alternative route.”

In anticipation of delays, Metro Transit added travel times to its schedule for express buses that operate on I-94, where there are no separate transit lanes. Though buses can use the shoulder, that doesn’t mean they are always in motion. Ramp jams, such as at Cedar Avenue, can be an issue.

As a result, “we have seen moderate delays on some trips,” said Metro Transit spokesman Drew Kerr.

The agency has not seen any immediate impact on ridership, or heavier traffic on the Green Line light rail linking St. Paul and Minneapolis, Kerr said.

Transit is a “great way to get vehicles off the road and make travel easier for those who must drive,” Kerr added.

Traffic may be at its worst for a couple of weeks until motorists become familiar with the work zone and adjust their patterns, said MnDOT spokeswoman Denise Workcuff. Until then, “we understand that this route will be challenging this construction season.”

I-94 is the busiest east-west Mississippi River crossing between downtown and I-694 to the north and near Fort Snelling to the south. Plymouth Avenue in north Minneapolis will be closed April 21, leaving one less place to cross the river.

“Commuting on 94 already made me wanna die, but this Monday really accelerated it,” said one Reddit user. “I’m taking 36 until further notice.”

Driving could get even more miserable in July when MnDOT gets started on a separate bridge project on I-394. At that time, the agency will begin repairing 34 bridges between downtown Minneapolis and Hwy. 100 in Golden Valley, potentially tangling traffic even further.

In a separate project, Hennepin County will continue with its remake of University Avenue through the University of Minnesota campus, adding another obstacle course for drivers to avoid and bottleneck a route some have given a try this week.

MnDOT is telling motorists to be attentive, drive with caution and slow down.

“Drivers need to remember zipper merging is a good practice, but driving on the shoulder is illegal and [it’s] absolutely unacceptable to use it as a passing lane,” said Lt. Mike Lee of the State Patrol. “Troopers are always on the lookout for unsafe driving, even in construction zones.”

Eli Harvey, who lives in the Seward neighborhood in south Minneapolis, was all smiles this week as drivers grumbled. He bikes year-round and his travel has been business as usual.

“It has not slowed me down at all,” he said. “It’s great to fly past all the traffic. If you are able, give biking a shot.”