Post Oak ramp to West Loop will close tonight

Another week, another change for Houston freeways: This time, the ramp to the West Loop northbound from Post Oak Boulevard will close — and it won't reopen until the end of the year.

The closure takes effect at 9 p.m. today, and the ramp will stay closed until December while crews switch traffic on the Loop's northbound frontage road onto new pavement between Post Oak and Woodway. One lane of the frontage road between Post Oak and Buffalo Bayou will remain open during those eight moths, and you know what that means: Unless you have several hours to spare, you'll want to stay away. This is bad news for Houstonist, because we used to use the Post Oak-frontage road-Woodway route to make a (reasonably) quick getaway from Uptown during rush hour. Now we guess we'll have to shop by catalog.

There's an online map showing exactly where the closure is and how you can detour to head north on the West Loop if you're coming from Post Oak (basically, you'd U-turn at Woodway, then U-turn again at San Felipe and use the entrance ramp there, but you might want to ask yourself whether it wouldn't be easier to just use San Felipe to begin with).