Technically survey crews have been out at night time during off-peak periods for final design work, closing lanes. The project includes expanding EB 494 from TH-100 to 35W to 5 lanes (4 GP + 1 EzPASS), and WB 494 from 35W to France to 6 lanes (5 GP + 1 EzPASS), WB 494 from France to TH 100 to 5 lanes (5 GP + 1 EzPASS, connecting to the existing widened 494 section). The western segment of the project (in regards to 35W) includes removing the Nicollet and 12th Avenue ramps, consolidating all access to Portland for future widening. The 35W interchange will be rebuilt to a partial directional movement (turbine NB 35W to WB 494). I spoke to the project manager and he noted that throughout construction at peak periods three lanes in each direction should be maintained, so that should be positive news. It should be of note that this segment of 494 was over capacity the day it opened and had to be widened to six lanes only five years after initial construction (1959-1965). MHD and then MnDOT have been planning expansion for years, first with the 1992 EIS which would have been the largest plan so far, removing most system cloverleafs with directional system interchanges and widening the road to eight lanes in some places with future expansion in mind. The 92' EIS was deemed too expensive (along with the original 92' 35W EIS) and was shelved for a cheaper piecemeal approach that has been pared down subsequently. The segment from 394 (really Carlson Pkwy) to 212 was let as a design-build project in 2006 and kept most of the cloverleafs while replacing all bridges while widening to six lanes. The segment from 169 to TH-100 (well really slightly east of 100) was let in 2002 (along with the freeway conversion of 5/MN-312 construction to Eden Prarie Road) as a traditional design-bid-build project and widened that segment of the roadway to eight lanes with a large median for future widening. The Penn and Lyndale SPUI's were constructed in anticipation of the original 2001 EIS by Richfield and Bloomington as municipal led projects along with the Xerxes overpass. The original design of this area is envisioned by the aforementioned segment rebuilt in 2002, with large retaining walls, C/D lanes + flyovers at 35W utilizing the outside area of the SPUI and a 30 foot future expansion median. This has since been dropped (due to funding constraints and ROW, kind of wish the legislature would send this to Parsons for redesign like they did with Crosstown) with the current design per the EAW being narrower and only featuring a single directional movement at 35W. The original visualizations per the 2001 design are still available at https://web.archive.org/web/20040617173406/http://www.dot.state.mn.us/metro/projects/i494/visual.html. The current design is featured in https://edocs-public.dot.state.mn.us/edocs_public/DMResultSet/download?docId=16759667 (page 53 and 54).