Lowry Tunnel pileup snarls rush hour

By Star Tribune

Last update: February 23, 2006 - 7:48 AM

A crash involving 11 vehicles in and near the Lowry Hill tunnel this morning in downtown Minneapolis has been cleared away, but not before it closed two lanes of the tunnel for an hour and caused long traffic delays for commuters heading east on Interstate Hwy. 94.

No injuries were reported in the crash which occurred at about 6:40 a.m. said Sean McDermott, spokesman for the State Patrol.

A secondary crash outside the tunnel involved a school bus, and also affected the flow of traffic, said Tom Heininger, spokesman for the Regional Transportation Management Center in Roseville.

The cause of the crash is still under investigation.

By 7:40 a.m. tow trucks had removed the vehicles from the tunnel and traffic had resumed at its near-normal rush hour pace, Heininger said.

Motorists on I-94 at Lowry Avenue could expect to take 16 minutes to get to I-35W and about 21 minutes to get to Hwy. 280 in St. Paul, he said.

"Which is pretty close to typical rush hour times," Heininger said.

Immediately after the accident the traffic management center was warning eastbound motorists out as far as Brooklyn Blvd. on I-694 and far west on I-394 to seek other routes around the downtown area.

Elsewhere on the metro freeway system, commuters encountered peak traffic levels and one accident.

The lone accident at the time, according to MnDOT, was located on southbound I-35W at 46th Street. The accident blocked the left lane and motorists faced heavy congestion to Lake Street.

Other slow areas included westbound I-494 from 24th Avenue. to I-35W, eastbound I-394 from Hwy. 169 to Hwy. 100 and southbound Hwy. 169 from I-394 to Hwy. 7.

Today's forecast calls for partly cloudy skies with a high around 22. West northwest wind around 9 miles per hour.

Tonight will have increasing clouds and a 30 percent chance of snow. Lows around 9 and west southwest wind at 10 miles per hour becoming southeast.

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