ST. LOUIS • Getting to the Rams home opener Sunday will take some extra planning.

Missouri transportation officials will close eastbound Highway 40 (Interstate 64) between 22nd and Eighth streets this weekend and will significantly restrict traffic on the Poplar Street Bridge in both directions. A short stretch of Interstate 55 in south St. Louis County also will be closed.

The Missouri Department of Transportation is urging drivers to use alternative routes into downtown this weekend. The highway closures and lane restrictions are scheduled to begin Friday and end by 5 a.m. Monday.

"We have another weekend with a lot of closures," said Tom Blair, MoDOT's assistant district engineer for the St. Louis region.

Blair said people traveling downtown from Illinois should consider using the Martin Luther King or Eads bridges to bypass the work zones. Missouri drivers heading east into downtown St. Louis should consider using Interstate 70 instead of Highway 40.

There will be no work zones on Interstates 170, 270 and 44 and most of I-70 in St. Louis and St. Louis County.

Blair said the multiple highway closures are necessary because much of the work that is being wrapped up now cannot be done when temperatures begin to drop. Contractors are prepared to work this weekend on I-55 and Highway 40, even if it rains.

The closure of eastbound Highway 40 will begin at 7 p.m. Friday. Workers will paint the bridge girders on the double-deck Highway 40 structure. At the same time, contractors will patch pavement on the Poplar Street Bridge driving surface.

Because of Sunday's Rams game at the Edward Jones Dome, MoDOT officials have been talking with St. Louis officials, who have adjusted signal timing on downtown streets. In addition, the state has asked the Rams to remind spectators that some of the eastbound lanes will be closed on the Poplar Street Bridge.

Also on Sunday, Tea Party activists from across the Midwest are gathering for a rally at the Gateway Arch.

In south St. Louis County, I-55 will be closed between Bayless Avenue and Reavis Barracks Road beginning at 7 p.m. Friday to set girders in place for the new Union Road bridge over the highway. Blair encouraged motorists to bypass the area using I-44.

But I-55 traffic will be rerouted using detours on streets surrounding the highway. Northbound motorists will exit at Reavis Barracks Road and use Lemay Ferry Road and Bayless Avenue to get back to I-55. Southbound motorists will use Weber, Gravois and MacKenzie roads, officials said.

The Department of Transportation considered closing westbound Highway 40 between the Chesterfield Valley and St. Charles County this weekend but has called off that closure. The stretch of Highway 40 will be closed the weekend of Sept. 17-20.

This weekend, Blair added, lanes also will be closed on both eastbound Highway 370 and eastbound Interstate 70 in St. Charles County. One eastbound lane of I-70 will be closed from 9 a.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday. A second eastbound lane will be closed from 10 p.m. Friday to 7 a.m. Saturday.

Two lanes of eastbound Highway 370 will be closed there from 9 a.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday.

"So if you are driving around that area, be prepared," Blair said. "It might take you a little bit longer to get through there than it normally would."