Tuesday's rush hour began with a five-car pileup on the ramp from County Road 81 to southbound Hwy. 169 in Brooklyn Park which led to a ramp closure, and things just got worse from there.
Scores of spinouts, rollovers and crashes tangled traffic across the metro as black ice led to slippery conditions.
Among the worst drives was on westbound Hwy. 36 where a traffic tangler at the interchange of 35W and Hwy. 280 led to a backup that extended back to near Hwy. 61.
Northbound 35W was no picnic either. A spate of wrecks made the trip from Burnsville to Minneapolis murderous with bumper to bumper traffic from the Crosstown to downtown most of the morning.
A rollover on southbound 35E at County Road E2 and another at Hwy. 10 at Foley Blvd. illustrated just how treacherous the roads were.
The current list of crashes include:
- Southbound 494 at 49th Avenue in Plymouth. There is a second at Bass Lake Road
- A pair of fender benders on westbound 94 in downtown Minneapolis and one eastbound at Park Avenue.
- Southbound Hwy. 169 at Cedar Lake Road in St. Louis Park
- Northbound 35W at County Road E2 and one at County Road 42 in Burnsville
- Westbound 494 at Hwy. 169 in Eden Prairie.
