Traffic heads inbound on U.S. 290 on Feb. 7, 2021 in Houston.

Road work along U.S. 290 in Greater Houston on Friday will likely snarl traffic for unsuspecting drivers, and the headache could last all weekend. 

Both the inbound and outbound lanes of U.S. 290 between Mueschke Road and Barker Cypress Road, a busy three-mile stretch of the Northwest Freeway in the heart of the Cypress suburb, will be closed as of 9 p.m. Friday. Drivers will be detoured to the frontage road, according to Emily Black, spokesperson for the Texas Department of Transportation, which is heading up the roadwork through a contractor. 

All lanes should be open by early Monday morning. However, crews can reopen the highway sooner if work is wrapped up early. 

The closure will allow a TxDOT contractor to make crucial repairs to an overpass along the span of the closure. Workers will replace aging bearing pads on the overpass, and how this work is performed is quite the feat. The bearing pad is a piece of the bridge smashed between the bridge deck, where drivers traverse the highway, and the support structures, like the concrete beams that hold up the bridge. 

To perform the work, crews will raise the bridge from the support structures to replace the pads before setting the bridge back down on the supports. Here's what a typical bearing pad replacement looks like: 

Crews will also repair pieces of broken concrete as part of the work, Black said. 

No other highways in the Houston area are targeted for full closures this weekend, according to Houston TranStar. 

Jay R. Jordan writes about how we get around Houston, among other topics like the environment and hot takes on complimentary bread.