More Highway 100 headaches this weekend, next week

Drivers on Minnesota Highway 100 in St. Louis Park should expect new delays starting Monday as more ramps and roads are closed, state transportation officials said Friday.

The ramp from southbound Highway 100 to Westside Drive will be closed to through traffic but open to local businesses.

Drivers can access the neighborhood west of Highway 100 and north of Minnetonka Boulevard via Minnesota Highway 7, Louisiana Avenue and Minnetonka Boulevard, the Minnesota Department of Transportation said in a statement.

Besides the ramp closure, the revised detour for the closure of Minnetonka Boulevard over Highway 100 will be Louisiana Avenue and Excelsior Boulevard, MnDOT added.

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The new detours and ramp closures come as MnDOT tries to meet the concerns of neighbors. The changes are "necessary to deter motorists from using local roads to bypass the congestion on the highway between Highway 7 and Minnetonka Boulevard" and to bypass the congestion on Wooddale Avenue and West Lake Street, the agency said.

MnDOT is deep into a $60 million project to reconstruct and widen Highway 100 at the Minnesota Highway 7 and Minnetonka Boulevard interchanges in St. Louis Park.

Part of Highway 100 will also be closed this weekend.

A two mile stretch of the highway, between Interstate 394 and Highway 62, will be closed to traffic as of 10 p.m. and will reopen Monday morning.

MnDOT suggests motorists use Highway 169 as an alternate north-south route in the western suburbs.