Starting Monday, MoDOT crews will be closing southbound lanes of U.S. 65 overnight.

MoDOT is replacing an aging stretch of Highway 65 and the process starts this week. Brad Gripka, a resident engineer with MoDOT, said it's more cost-effective to replace the stretch between Sunshine St. and James River Freeway instead of trying to repair it.

"The pavement has been there for 40-45 years and it's served its life. Now we can't do any more surfacing to it or diamond grinding," Brad Gripka said.

Surveyors will map out the highway between Sunshine St. and James River Freeway in Springfield. They'll work in the southbound lanes first.

"Once we get that completed, we'll set up the lane closures going northbound, across Lake Springfield, going all the way, we'll do the whole process all over again," Gripka said.

Drivers will still be able to use the far left lane overnight. Crews will work from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. It's all prep work before the full closures start on August 4.

Once construction starts,expect slowdowns and exiting off sunshine, along with long detours. Gripka said MoDOT already has detours ready- from I-44 to James River, and from Route 125 to U.S. 60- around the construction zone. He also said there are extra traffic lights on Blackman Rd. to help.

"We know there's going to be some overload of heavy traffic volumes, people using city streets and trying to find those alternate routes until we get through this," Gripka said.

He says drivers should be planning now.

"We went through this two years ago, you know what to expect."

To sign up for U.S. 65 construction alerts and updates, click

.

To see MoDOT's plan for the construction, click

.