If you're staying in town this weekend, be prepared to deal with construction-related delays in and around Atlanta.

The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) has warned that major maintenance activities on the Downtown Connector will require multiple lane closures this weekend in both directions. Significant delays are possible and the public is urged to avoid travel on the connector if possible beginning tonight and continuing until early Monday.

Similarly, GDOT is advising drivers that the Interstate Highway 75 southbound exit ramp to Interstate Highway 285 eastbound in Cobb County also will be closed Friday night through Sunday morning; the eastbound I-285 exit ramp(s) to Georgia State Route 400, both northbound and southbound, will be closed throughout the weekend; and two I-285 northbound lanes on the west side, north of the Interstate Highway 20 Interchange, will be closed the entire weekend as well.

On the connector, contractors will be replacing overhead signs and median walls and also making repairs to bridge joints — both north and southbound — in the two-mile section between Fulton Street and Piedmont Avenue. As many as three outside (right) lanes in both directions may be closed simultaneously from 9 p.m. on Friday until 5 a.m. on Monday.

In addition, beginning at 4 a.m. on Saturday morning and continuing until approximately 2 p.m. on Saturday afternoon, the Interstate Highway 85 southbound exit ramp to Peachtree Road will be closed so that contractors building the new overpasses at the I-85/Georgia 400 Interchange can set a bridge beam. Also in conjunction with that work, one southbound lane of Lenox Road will be closed and traffic paced from 7 a.m. until noon on Saturday.

For more information, consult Georgia 511 — either via the free phone call to 511 or at its website, www.511ga.org — for real-time traffic updates and detour information.