A section of the Capital Beltway’s outer loop will be closed for 14 hours this weekend while a maintenance crew repairs the bridge that carries the crowded highway over Interstate 395.

Steve Titunik, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Transportation, said the bridge is safe for vehicle traffic. The work will improve the bridge’s surface and does not involve any structural issues, he added said.

The stretch of the outer loop being closed — between Braddock Road and Van Dorn Street — is scheduled to shut down at 8 p.m. Saturday and reopen at 10 a.m. Sunday.

Motorists who are driving toward the Woodrow Wilson Bridge will be detoured off the Beltway at Exit 57B, which takes them to I-395 North. The detour then will direct motorists to I-395 North’s Exit 2B (Edsall Road). After merging into Edsall Road, detoured motorists will return to the outer loop by turning around onto I-395 South and taking Exit 1C to the Beltway.

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Titunik said the three-mile detour could add 15 minutes to motorists’ trips.

The closure will not disrupt Outer Loop traffic heading to Springfield, Interstate 95 South and Franconia Road.

jrogalsky@dcexaminer.com