Road construction season begins Sunday night, Feb. 22, when the Minnesota Department of Transportation resumes work on the Interstate 394 bridge and pavement repair project that snarled traffic last summer.
Starting at 10 p.m., all westbound lanes between downtown Minneapolis and Hwy. 100 in Golden Valley will be closed for repairs until midsummer. Drivers will be shifted onto the reversible carpool lanes for the next five months.
When that work is completed, MnDOT will tackle the eastbound lanes and drivers heading into downtown will use the E-ZPass lanes.
There will be no special lanes available for E-ZPass users, carpools or transit riders until the project is complete.
More than 120,000 vehicles travel the 5 miles between downtown and Golden Valley each day, according to MnDOT. Assuming half of that traffic goes each way, 60,000 vehicles will be forced into two lanes rather than three.
“Expect significant delays,” the MnDOT warned.
If February seems early for road construction, it is, said MnDOT spokesman Nathan Bowie. Sunday may not be record-setting, but Feb. 22 is “among the earliest start dates in recent years,” he said.
Typically, road construction begins in April or when the weather gets much nicer than temperatures in the 20s and with snow still on the ground. But bridge demolition and other prep work can take place in the cold, Bowie said.
