I-94 westbound closes for the weekend in St. Paul; detours abound in west metro

Highway closures will challenge Twin Cities drivers this weekend beginning Friday night.

Road closures for the weekend of July 24-27, 2015
The weekend's road closures
Courtesy of MnDOT

St. Paul: I-94 between I-35E and Hwy. 280

The Minnesota Department of Transportation will close the the westbound lanes of Interstate 94 in St. Paul between I-35E and Hwy. 280 beginning at 10 p.m.

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Crews will pour concrete on the north side of the new Snelling Avenue overpass, according to MnDOT spokesman Kevin Gutknecht, who said it's possible that the westbound lanes will reopen before Monday morning.

Next weekend — July 31 through Aug. 2 — MnDOT plans to close the eastbound lanes in the area of the Snelling project as its final big closure, from Friday at 10 p.m. to Monday at 5 a.m.

"The significant goal for this project [is] to be open and available for the State Fair," Gutknecht said. "I think it looks really good."

West Twin Cities metro area: I-694, I-494 and I-394

Another major closure this weekend involves the busy intersections of interstates 694, 94 and 394 in the west metro.

At 10 p.m. tonight, southbound 1-494 between I-694/94 in Maple Grove will close, as will I-394. MnDOT's detour will send traffic from eastbound I-694/94 to Highway 169 southbound, then onto westbound I-394.

MnDOT will be working on a bridge in that area, Gutknecht said.

Commuters on I-394 in and out of downtown Minneapolis will catch a break this week. All lanes between I-94 and Hwy. 100 are open as normal for the first time in weeks, and will remain that way until Friday, July 31. That's when traffic on all lanes heading east will shift to the two HOV/reversible lanes until the grinding of the pavement and other repairs are complete sometime in mid-August.