The Minnesota Department of Transportation will take down two bridges in the south Twin Cities this weekend, and to do it the agency will close both directions of Interstate 35W through Bloomington and Burnsville.
The freeway will be shut down from 9 p.m. Friday until 6 p.m. Monday between Interstate 494 and the I-35E/35W split.
Motorists will be directed to use I-35E, Cedar Avenue and I-494 to get around the closure as crews take down bridges at Burnsville Parkway and Hwy. 13.
Thousands of drivers heading to downtown Minneapolis for this weekend’s Twins games or Timberwolves playoff games at Target Center will have to find an alternate route.
Those attending the Minnesota Wild’s home game at the Xcel Energy Center on Saturday, the Minnesota United game Sunday or this weekend’s St. Paul Art Crawl could feel the impact as motorists shift over to I-35E or Hwy. 5.
Metro Transit’s Orange Line, the rapid bus line running on I-35W between Minneapolis and Burnsville, will stop at all stations along the route, but buses will be redirected.
“Expect delays due to detoured routing,” the agency said in a statement.
When the freeway reopens Monday, drivers will be squeezed into two lanes in each direction between Cliff Road and the 35E/35W split with no EZ-Pass lane through October.
