Weekend traffic: Wild hockey, Get in Gear races and road construction

The biggest traffic-generating event of the weekend by far will be the Wild's home playoff game against St. Louis Sunday at the Xcel Energy Center in downtown St. Paul. The Swarm have a home lacrosse match Saturday at the X

A reminder that Kellogg Blvd. between Market and Wabasha Streets is closed until this fall, but access to the RiverCentre parking ramp is still available.

Look for extra traffic around the Mall of America in Bloomington where the March for Babies Walk takes place at 8 a.m. Saturday. And the USA Volleyball Junior National Qualifying tournament at the Convention Center will bring extra vehicles to downtown Minneapolis.

The Get in Gear 5K, 10K and half marathon races will bring lots of folks to Minnehaha Park in south Minneapolis. West River Parkway will be closed from Minnehaha Pkwy. to Lake Street on the in Minneapolis. On the St. Paul side of the river, look for closures of Mississippi River Blvd. south of Marshall Avenue down to Hwy. 5, and on Shepard Road to near Rankin Street.

With construction on Minnehaha Avenue, participants and spectators are encouraged to park at the VA Medical Center and take a shuttle to the Minnehaha Park.

Track work will impact Sunday travel on the Northstar line, Metro Transit said. See posting below.

Road Construction

The bridge over the Mississippi River is being redecked, and that has traffic operating on one side the current bridge. With lane closures in place from Ft. Snelling up to near Shepard Road, expect backups along W. 7th Street and onto the Mendota Bridge. We saw that occur during this week's morning and afternoon rush hours. Expect to add extra time if this is your route to the airport.

Other ramps and roads in the immediate area of the Mississippi River bridge also are closed.

Hwy. 100 through St. Louis Park

The good news is that no major changes are in store for the weekend, and Hwy. 100 will be three lanes in each direction between Cedar Lake Road and Excelsior Blvd. Bigger changes will take effect next week, so that talk about taking the highway down to two lanes in each direction will happen.

MnDOT also said this week will postpone closing the Westside Drive until further notice. The exit will be signed local businesses only, but there will not be barriers that prevent people from continuing south on the frontage road. MnDOT originally said it would put up barriers to keep motorists from exiting Hwy. 100 and cutting through the neighborhood to escape the bottleneck on Hwy. 100.

I-494 in Plymouth and Maple Grove

The rebuilding of I-494 from the Fish Lake Interchange down to Hwy. 55 continues. Two northbound lanes will be open and one southbound lane open Friday afternoon until Sunday afternoon. That's when MnDOT will slide the moveable barrier over to create a second southbound lane to accommodate folks returning from out of town. From Sunday afternoon until Monday afternoon, northbound traffic will be restricted to one lane.

In the same area, Hennepin County Road 47 between Yucca Lane and Teakwood Lane will be closed to traffic until late May. The closure is needed while crews reconstruct the southbound side of I-494 over County Road 47.

Here is the detour:

Fourth Street in downtown Minneapolis

Traffic will be detoured south on Portland Avenue to 6th Street, east on 6th to Park Avenue then north on Park back to 4th Street. The bike lane also will be closed.

For commuters looking to access I-35W, rather than taking the six-block detour, it might be easier to just scoot over to Washington Avenue or use 4th Avenue S. For drivers looking to get on westbound I-94, it might be just as easy to hit 3rd Street and leave on the west end of downtown.

I-35W in northeast Minneapolis

Delays are certainly possible on northbound I-35W between University Avenue and NE. Johnson Street. The freeway will go down to two lanes at 8 p.m. and a single lane at 10 p.m.

On Saturday, a second lane will reopen at 6 a.m. The freeway will be have two lanes open until 2 p.m. During this time, the ramp to Hennepin Avenue will be closed. MnDOT will be doing concrete work.

Prepare for delays on both directions of Hwy. 52 between Hwy. 55 and 160th Street in Coates. Construction will have the southbound lanes closed from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. and northbound lanes from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. This should wrap up by Tuesday.

West River Parkway in Minneapolis

In addition to the closure for the Get in Gear races (see above), West River Parkway is closed between 26th Street and 29th Street for repairs necessary due to last summer's mudslide.

Minnehaha Avenue and 46th Street in Minneapolis

Construction has 46th Street down to one lane in each direction between Snelling Avenue and 42nd Avenue with traffic operating on the south side of the road.

Foley Blvd. in Coon Rapids

Anoka County is rebuilding Foley Boulevard from 101^st Avenue NW to Egret Boulevard NW. Traffic as of Friday is now a single lane in each direction. This project includes storm sewer upgrades, concrete median, signal installation at 102^nd Lane NW and bituminous & concrete sidewalks.

Foley also is closed through April 30 at the BNSF railroad crossing between East River Pkwy. and Coon Rapids Blvd. The detour has motorists using East River Pkwy., 85th Avenue NW., Springbrook Drive and Coon Rapids Blvd.

Northstar line

BNSF railway will be doing track maintenance on Sunday between Coon Rapids and Fridley, and Metro Transit says regularly-scheduled trips could see delays of up to 10 minutes.

For passengers heading north, trains will stop at the Fridley station, then back out and switch tracks before continuing onto Coon Rapids, Anoka, Ramsey, Elk River and Big Lake.