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Weekend traffic alert: Bike race, boatfest to close roads

Bicycles and dragon boats will mean some road closures this weekend.

Bicycles and dragon boats will mean some road closures this weekend.

Today will even see two sections of the Ben Franklin Parkway closed in preparation for Sunday's TD Bank Philadelphia International Cycling Championship.

The eastbound center lanes from Eakins Oval to 20th Street were scheduled to be blocked off from this morning till the conclusion of the race, about 4 p.m. Sunday.

The westbound center lanes from 20th Street to Eakins Oval were to close at 6:30 p.m. today, also until late Sunday afternoon.

Saturday, both directions of Kelly Drive will be closed between Fountain Green and Strawberry Mansion Drives for the International Dragon Boat Festival. The Schuylkill Expressway (I-76) is one alternative. More event info: www.philadragonboatfestival.com.

Also closed Saturday and Sunday will be the other road along the Schuylkill. All summer long, to promote recreational activities, Martin Luther King Drive closes at 6.a.m. on weekends from Eakins Oval to Falls Bridge. At noon, a stretch reopens from the Eakins Oval (the Art Museum) to the Sweetbriar Cutoff (west of the zoo), but the rest remains closed till 5 p.m.

The biggest diverter of traffic, though, will be Sunday's pro bike race from Logan Circle to Manayunk. The following routes will close from 6 a.m. till about 4 p.m., according to police:

-- All of Kelly Drive (even to trolleys)

-- The Parkway from 18th Street to Eakins Oval.

-- Ridge Avenue, from School House Lane to Hermit Lane.

-- Main Street, from Ridge to Green Lane.

-- Levering Street, from Main to Tower Street.

-- Cresson Street, between offset portions of Levering Street.

-- Lyceum Street, from Tower to Pechin.

-- Pechin Street, from Lyceum to Roxborough Avenue

-- Roxborough Avenue, from Pechin to Manyunk Avenue.

-- Manayunk Avenue, from Roxborough Avenue to Ridge.

Restrictions will limit access to the Art Museum and parts of Fairmount Park, including:

-- Access to the Art Museum will be only through the Spring Garden Tunnel.

-- No vehicles, including trolleys, will have access to the Lemon Hill, Mount Pleasant, and Ormiston mansions, or the Dairy and Edgely ballfields.

-- No vehicles, including bikes, will be allowed to enter the park at Dauphin Drive.

-- Vehicles entering at Diamond Drive will be permitted only as far as Smith Playground.

-- Sedgley and Brewery Hill Drives will be closed at Girard Avenue.

-- Vehicles won't have access to the park from Hunting Park Avenue, the Roosevelt Expressway (Route 1) or Midvale Avenue.

For more event details, go to www.procyclingtour.com/phila-home.htm.

Note to spectators thinking of using mass transit: SEPTA will have beefed-up service on the Manayunk/Norristown Line. For details, go to: www.septa.org/media/releases/2011/05-31.html.