Traffic on Interstate 85 through west Charlotte, N.C., will be detoured onto a temporary freeway at the site of a new interchange starting this weekend.

According to the The Charlotte Observer, the three-quarter-mile detour will be in place for a year while the state builds an interchange with I-485. Northbound traffic will be shifted started this weekend, while southbound traffic will be detoured starting the weekend of July 13-14.
The detour will take drivers down a valley and beneath an I-485 ramp bridge. Then they will climb a hill before returning to the existing highway. Southbound drivers will detour across the median and empty northbound I-85 lanes and down to the detour, then back again.
I-85 is a major truck route to Charlotte and Atlanta. When the new interchange opens in early 2004, it will have six bridges, two loops and eight ramps.