Semi carrying 45,000 pounds of sunflower seeds rolls on I-35W

Traffic on southbound Interstate Hwy. 35W is moving again, now that a rollover crash involving a semitrailer truck at County Road E2 in Arden Hills has been cleared.

By TIM HARLOW, Star Tribune

Last update: March 11, 2008 - 8:26 AM

Traffic on southbound Interstate Hwy. 35W is moving again, now that a rollover crash involving a semitrailer truck at County Road E2 in Arden Hills has been cleared.

The truck carrying 45,000 pounds of sunflower seeds tipped over around 5:45 a.m. and blocked the left two lanes of the freeway for more than 2½ hours.

Motorists encountered delays of 30 to 45 minutes as they tried to navigate past the scene. At one point traffic was backed up to Lake Drive, five miles to the north.

To ease traffic congestion, some ramps leading to southbound I-35W had been shut. The entrance ramps from both east and west I-694 leading to south I-35W were closed, but are now open.

Elsewhere on the system at 8:15 a.m., a rollover accident on westbound I-94 at Century Avenue is slowing traffic through Maplewood.

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