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The Minnesota Department of Transportation will be starting single lane closures on both northbound and southbound I-35 at the Atkinson Bridge on Monday, April 29. Traffic will be shifted to a head-to-head, single lane format on the northbound lanes of I-35 on Wednesday, May 1. The Atkinson bridge crosses Carlton County Road 61 about three miles south of Highway 210. This traffic configuration is expected to last through late August.

Additionally, Carlton County Road 61 will close underneath the bridge starting on Tuesday, April 30 for bridge demolition. Traffic will be detoured on County Road 61 to County Road 4 to County Road 5. This closure is expected to last for approximately a month. The Munger Trail underneath the bridge will remain open. Bicyclists and pedestrians should expect occasional routing onto County Road 61 and flaggers to assist in safely crossing underneath the bridge during working hours.

Motorists should expect delays on I-35 especially during peak weekend travel hours. Traffic should also follow the zipper merge and use both lanes until the merge point to help with traffic flow.

For more information and a detour map, please visit the project website: https://www.dot.state.mn.us/d1/projects/atkinson-bridge/index.html

For more information on projects in northeast Minnesota, follow us on Facebook at https://facebook.com/groups/MnDOTnortheast and Twitter at @mndotnortheast. For real-time traffic and travel information in Minnesota, visit http://www.511mn.org.