OK, life just got a little easier.
Last Wednesday,
barondave pointed out that my easiest route to work is breaking as of 5am tomorrow (7/6), and will be broken for several weeks. (For reference - I use the 35th St. -> I-35W Northbound on-ramp.) I was not happy - the work-arounds that immediately came to mind were Hiawatha to I-94 Westbound (with OMG Out-of-the-way!), or city streets to I-394 (with lots of stop-lights and skirting of downtown Minneapolis), or (lots of) city streets to Highway 100. I didn't really like any of those options.
I went and checked the write-up again just now - the 46th Street on-ramp to 35W Northbound is open again! (or so they claim). Still some out of the way, but it's a lot better than my other options.