Northbound Spur 527 will open Monday

If you drive to and from Midtown, Montrose and downtown along the Southwest Freeway on a regular basis, get ready to be happy: Monday morning, the northbound lanes of Spur 527 — which have been closed for more than two years — will reopen. But in the meantime, get ready to be upset: the northbound lanes of the Southwest Freeway will be closed between Shepherd and Main beginning tonight.

The freeway will close at 9 p.m. today, and everything will reopen at 5 a.m. Monday. In the meantime, TxDOT suggests using the South Loop to Highway 288 as a detour (although if you don't want to do that, you can do what Houstonist has been doing for months: use Richmond). When the inbound side of the spur reopens, it will include all the old ramps — to Richmond, Travis, Louisiana and Brazos. We can't wait for the freeway to reopen, and we can't wait to see what innovative ramp designs TxDOT has come up with ...