ROCHESTER — Motorists in Owatonna will find Hoffman Drive closed beginning at 9 p.m. Friday through 5 a.m. Monday. The closure is necessary for work crews to safely remove the Interstate 35 bridge over the road.

Traffic will re-open through Hoffman Drive at I-35 Monday morning.

A bridge demolition is also taking place this week on I-35 over Canadian Pacific Railway tracks, but no detours or road closures are necessary.

Currently, motorists will see single-lane, head-to-head traffic on I-35 in Owatonna as well as offramp and onramp closures for southbound traffic, according to the Minnesota Department of Transportation.

Southbound traffic is crossed over into the northbound lanes of I-35 north of Steele County Road 2.

Northbound traffic will continue in a single lane, while southbound uses the other lane. Southbound traffic will cross back over to two lanes south of Bridge Street.

The Hoffman Drive southbound offramp at Exit 42A will be closed, as will southbound onramps at 26th Street Northwest (Exit 43) and Steele County Road 2 (Exits 42 A&B).

Those closures are expected to remain through early October.

The $19.1 million project is taking place over two years to replace the concrete I-35 roadways through Owatonna, as well as replace bridges and include additional safety features on the corridor. The project with prime contractor Mathiowetz Construction began in early May and is expected to be complete in fall 2015.

Because of the traffic volumes on I-35, traffic backups and delays occur during weekend travel periods through this construction workzone, so motorists should adjust their travel plans to account for delays.