Weekend traffic tip: Stay off the freeways

It's not going to be the best weekend for driving in Houston: Three major freeway closures and a few minor detours will undoubedtly tie up traffic. It seems that, no matter how much Houstonians hear about closures, they drive right into them anyway — so Houstonist is giving you the chance to be smarter than your fellow motorists by avoiding these spots altogether:

• Between 6:30 a.m. and 7 p.m. today, the ramp from the northbound West Loop to the westbound Katy Freeway will be closed. At 9 p.m. today, all the eastbound Katy Freeway main lanes and the HOV lane will close between Silber and the West Loop, though the exit ramp from the eastbound Katy to the southbound West Loop will remain open. (We sure don't want to be in the line waiting to make that exit.) Another ramp at the interchange, from the eastbound Katy to the northbound West Loop, is closed and will stay closed through May.
• The entrance to the southbound Spur 527 from downtown, at Bagby and Westheimer, closed Thursday evening; at 7 p.m. tonight, all the other entrances to the spur will close. If you're trying to leave downtown, don't take the Katy Freeway — see above. Instead, try taking Westheimer to Shepherd or Kirby or Elgin to Highway 288. Or, you know, stay in downtown. The spur will be closed until 5 a.m. Monday while crews install new paving and shift traffic onto new outbound lanes.
• All southbound lanes of the Southwest Freeway closed Friday night between Highway 288 and Kirby. Two inside northbound lanes are also closed between Graustark and Highway 288, as is the exit to Main Street from the northbound freeway. They'll be closed until 5 a.m. Monday in connection with work on the spur. The recommended detour is Highway 288 south.
• On the west side, Highway 6 will be subject to alternate total closures between 9 p.m. today and 5 a.m. Sunday. If you're headed north on Highway 6, take the eastbound I-10 frontage road to Eldridge and U-turn; if you're headed south, take the westbound frontage road to Park 10 and U-turn. One outside lane of the Katy Freeway frontage road will also be closed at Highway 6 between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. today.
• The intersection of Dairy Ashford and I-10 closed last night and will remain closed until 5 a.m. Monday. The recommended detour is to use the I-10 frontage road and U-turn at either Eldridge or Kirkwood.