If you haul to Canada and use the Ambassador Bridge, don’t count on taking Interstate 75 for a few years.

The Michigan Department of Transportation says beginning Feb. 25, it will shut down a stretch of I-75 in southwest Detroit for the $231 million Ambassador Bridge Gateway Project, and it will stay closed for nearly two years.

A 1.5-mile section of I-75 between Rosa Parks Boulevard and Clark Street will be closed, DOT officials said.  The closure is expected to last until December 2009.

Officials say the project is designed to increase capacity and ease traffic at the “economically vital” Detroit-Windsor border crossing. More than $1.1 billion in goods crosses between the United States and Canada each day, MDOT said.

By providing greater access to freeways, the MDOT Gateway Project will ensure that these goods arrive at their destinations quickly and reliably, officials said.

MDOT officials said they don’t expect to see a backup of trucks any longer, noting trucks sometimes have to wait hours to cross the span over the Detroit River. Trucks are unable to cross under the Detroit River in the Windsor Tunnel, they said.

Officials say there are enough marked alternate routes so motorists shouldn’t have too much difficulty, but prepare for some congestion when the section of I-75 is first closed.