Metro-east drivers headed to St. Louis will soon encounter lane closures across the Poplar Street Bridge as the Illinois Department of Transportation begins a $5 million road project.

The agency is patching and resurfacing the stretch of Interstate 55/64 between the Poplar Street Bridge and the I-55/64/70 interchange in East St. Louis, according to Joel Cumby, the project implementation engineer for IDOT.

“Anybody that’s traveled it understands that it’s in very poor condition,” Cumby said.

Illinois Department of Transportation maintenance crews have been doing intermittent work to keep the road open for an estimated 120,000 vehicles per day, but Cumby said it needs more substantial repairs now.

The agency provided more details about when and how it will affect metro-east residents’ commute at a news conference Wednesday in East St. Louis.

Here’s what to know:

The work will only take place on weekends. And the roadway will remain open throughout the project because IDOT will only fully close one direction at a time.

It is scheduled to begin Friday, March 22, and is expected to wrap up before Memorial Day weekend.

The agency plans to start by closing and working on the eastbound lanes over the course of three weekends, excluding the Easter holiday. It will then move on to the westbound lanes for three weekends.

Lane closures during the work will start at 9 p.m. on Friday nights. The lanes will reopen no later than 5 a.m. the following Monday.

The tentative schedule looks like this:

Cumby said the Illinois Department of Transportation chose to start with the eastbound lanes to make it easier for metro-east residents to get to the St. Louis Cardinals home-opener. But they will need to take an alternate route to get home.

State funding for the project comes from the Rebuild Illinois Capital Infrastructure Plan, which is supported by increased transportation costs, including higher state gas taxes and vehicle registration fees.