One crash in the wrong spot can wreak havoc with the rush hour, and that's what happened Friday morning with an early wreck on I-94 in downtown Minneapolis.

As many as three vehicles collided in the eastbound lanes at the south exit to I-35W. That took out the right lane and led to an epic backup that had traffic snarled back to Broadway. The crash at 6:50 a.m. finally cleared 45 minutes later, but by then the peak of the rush set in and traffic struggled to recover.

The cram also impacted eastbound 394, which saw gridlock from Hwy. 169 into downtown Minneapolis, at least in the general purpose lanes. The HOT lane definitely saved commuters time.

Road work continues on eastbound 94 at Huron Blvd. until about 3 p.m. today, so prepare to slow down approaching the area.

Elsewhere commuters experienced few problems as dry roads and a few crashes led to a nice drive.

Heads up, Hwy. 100 between 394 and Crosstown closes again this weekend. I'll have the details in a separate posting soon.