I-35 Southbound Shift To Michigan Street Happens Week Of September 27

You knew it was coming - and it's finally here.  One of the major pieces of work on the Twin Ports Interchange (Can of Worms) Reconstruction Project has been the eventual shift of the southbound lanes of I-35 to Michigan Street so that work can progress.  According to the Minnesota Department of Transportation, that date has come.

MNDOT officials are alerting drivers of the major change coming to the I-35 corridor starting the week of September 27; especially in regards to that southbound traffic.  Road crews have spent a large portion of the summer preparing Michigan Street to handle that directional traffic.  Here are the specifics that MNDOT has to share about the upcoming traffic shift:

• Southbound I-35 traffic will be routed onto Lower Michigan Street near Garfield Avenue and back onto I-35 just north of 27th Avenue West.  This configuration will be in place for the project through the fall of 2022.
• Southbound I-35 to southbound I-535 will close.  The signed detour will follow southbound I-35 to the Highway 2 Bong Bridge.

With the movement of southbound traffic on I-35 to Lower Michigan Street, the I-35 corridor through Duluth will once again - for the time being - return to two lanes in each direction.

This immediate, temporary lane shifts are part of the larger Twin Ports Interchange Project - the multi-year work to rebuild and redesign the intersections commonly referred to as the Can of Worms in the Northland.  All told, the project is estimated to cost $343 million - although that number is only an approximate calculation, as the work is a couple of years away from being done.

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The official timeline provided by the Minnesota Department of Transportation has the Twin Ports Interchange Project being completed in 2024.  For complete details about he project or any of the road work coordinate by MNDOT, click here.