Despite the wintry weather, the first road closure of the construction season comes this weekend when the Minnesota Department of Transportation shuts down a section of Hwy. 10 in Anoka to take down the Ferry Street overpass.

"Cold is not an issue for bridge demo and removal," said MnDOT spokesman Kent Barnard.

Both directions of Hwy. 10 will be reduced to one lane at 9 p.m. Friday at Ferry Street, also known as the Hwy. 10/47/169 interchange. An hour later, all lanes of the highway in both directions between Ferry Street and 7th Avenue will close.

That stretch of Hwy. 10 will reopen at 5 a.m. Monday, with a single lane of traffic in each direction from Ferry Street to 7th Avenue through late fall.

The Ferry Street overpass at Hwy. 10 will close at 9 p.m. Friday and remain closed until November. Crews over the summer will replace it with a new overpass and a traffic light to control left turns, reduce conflict points and provide more green lights, Barnard said.

Motorists on Ferry Street won't be able to cross Hwy. 10 during the closure, but ramps to and from Ferry Street will stay open most of the time.

The project kicks off the second season of the rebuilding of Hwy. 10 between 7th and Thurston avenues. When the $98 million project largely wraps up in the fall and traffic lights are removed, the highway will operate much like a freeway.

This year's work will include new eastbound Hwy. 10 bridges over the Rum River and Fairoak Avenue and a new westbound bridge over Thurston Avenue. Other westbound bridges were rebuilt last year.

Crews also will add auxiliary lanes on Hwy. 10 between Ferry Street and 7th Avenue to make it easier for motorists to get on and off the highway. Traffic signals at Fairoak and Thurston avenues, which have long contributed to bottlenecks for the 60,000 to 69,000 vehicles passing through Anoka each day, will be removed.