Weekend traffic: Closures of key routes could challenge motorists heading for fall fun

The first full weekend of fall serves up a variety of traffic-generating sporting events, concerts and festivals, but road work could make it challenging to get to the fun.

The University of Minnesota homecoming parade Friday night, plus a Gophers football game Saturday and a Vikings game Sunday at TCF Bank Stadium will bring extra traffic on roads leading to campus. Meanwhile, downtown Minneapolis will be busy with a Shania Twain concert Saturday night at Target Center. Downtown St. Paul will see an influx of traffic Sunday night for the Wild hockey game at the Xcel Energy Center.

Off the mainline, the Walk to End Alzheimer's will close streets near Target Field Saturday morning. The final Minneapolis Open Streets event takes over Lowry Avenue Sunday afternoon.

Here are places travelers will be forced to detour this weekend.

• The weather should be nice for the Minnesota Department of Transportation's bridge painting project, which will shut down the southbound lanes of Interstate 494 and all entrance and exit ramps between I-694/94 split and I-394 from 10 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday. The official detour: Eastbound I-694/94 to southbound Hwy. 169 to westbound Hwy. 212 to I-494.

Two northbound lanes on I-494 will be open.

• In Edina, the southbound lanes of Hwy. 100 between the Crosstown and I-494 close 10 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday. Motorists will be directed to the Crosstown east to I-35W or west to I-494.

• Drivers on Snelling Avenue will be happy that MnDOT has called off the closure of the I-94 overpass this weekend.

• Excelsior Boulevard will be closed between County Road 101 and Spring Lane in Minnetonka through Sunday. Traffic should follow the detour via County Road 62 and Eden Prairie Road.

• Motorists using I-35E will find all lanes open between Little Canada Road and I-94, but some ramp closures are still in place for a few more weeks. Most notably, the ramp from southbound I-35E to southbound Hwy. 52 remains closed until November.

• A memo to Wild fans: Kellogg Blvd. in downtown St. Paul remains under construction between Market and Wabasha streets.

• Hwy. 169 between Hwy. 21 and Hwy. 282 in Jordan is reduced to a single lane with a speed limit of 45 miles per hour through late October. Expect heavier traffic between Jordan and Shakopee due to the Renaissance Festival.

• Hwy. 10 near Armstrong Boulevard in Ramsey. Armstrong is closed north of Hwy. 10 through October.

• A number of Metro Transit buses that run on 5th, 6th and 7th streets in downtown Minneapolis will be detoured Saturday morning as participants in the Walk for Alzheimer's take over several streets in the vicinity of Target Field.

• It's a six-hour party from noon to 6 p.m. Sunday as the last installment of Minneapolis Streets kicks vehicles off Lowry Avenue from Vincent Avenue to Emerson Avenue N.

• A 5K race will close Main Street in downtown Minneapolis from Hennepin Avenue to 6th Av. SE., West River Parkway from Plymouth Avenue to S. 4th Street and the Plymouth Avenue bridge from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday.