ST. LOUIS – There are some big closures coming to the downtown St. Louis area this weekend, beginning Friday evening.

“It’s really important that we get these closures done in a dense time period, so it doesn’t impact the traveling public,” Jen Wade with the Missouri Department of Transportation.  

Starting at 11 p.m. on Friday, MoDOT will be closing the stretch of Interstate 44 and 55 from 7th St. and Park Ave. to Interstate 64 in downtown. It will be closed into Saturday afternoon.  

The closure is in response to a request from the Terminal Railroad Association to perform maintenance on the railroad bridge over the interstate. MoDOT will also be doing some work during the closures.  

 “Cleaning out drains, taking care of some graffiti, doing sweeping and major item pickup from the roadway, and really taking care of as much as we can while we have the lanes closed,” Wade explained.  

Detours will be marked, and drivers will mostly be re-routed onto Broadway, Chouteau, Fourth and Tucker.  

“We do have detours set up. It’s pretty complicated because it impacts so many directions as they move from one interstate to another,” Wade said.   

All lanes are expected to be open by 4 p.m. on Saturday.