A trio of stalls and crashes on southbound I-35W tangled traffic in the northern suburbs for the first half of the rush, but at present the flow is fine through Shoreview and Roseville.
The freeway resembled a parking lot between 6 and 7:30 a.m. after a stall in the left lane at County Road C caused traffic to plug up. Not long after, a mishap at County E2 added to the mess. Then, just as those two incidents cleared came a fender bender at County Road 96.
That was the worst drive in the metro this morning, but other areas had issues, too.
Commuters on westbound Crosstown and I-494 saw heavy levels of congestion between Cedar Avenue and Hwy. 100 around 8 a.m. Meanwhile, southbound I-494 was tight until about 8 a.m. between the Fish Lake Interchange and Bass Lake Road. That was due to a disabled semitrailer truck parked on the right shoulder.
The boy's state basketball tournament begins in about an hour, so look for extra traffic in downtown Minneapolis today through Saturday. Lots of folks not accustomed to driving in downtown will be in the area, so look for slow traffic and some confused drivers. Cut them some slack.
