One crash led to nearly 2 hours of congestion in downtown Minneapolis, by far the biggest mess of the Thursday morning commute.

The wreck on eastbound 94 at Franklin Avenue took out two lanes of the freeway for a time, and had the right lane blocked for more than an hour. From 7:15 to about 8:30 a.m., commuters trudged through gridlock from Franklin Avenue back to Lowry Avenue in north Minneapolis. In the past 20 minutes, the flow has improved greatly.

Eastbound 394 also felt the effects of the I-94 crash, with drive times of 15 to 20 minutes from 494 to downtown Minneapolis during the 7:30 to 8:15 a.m. time frame.

The theatrics on the roads began early with a nasty rollover wreck on eastbound 94 at the Hwy. 241 in St. Michael. The crash around 6 a.m. kept traffic jammed from County Road 37 in Albertville for about an hour.

Road work on Hwy. 100 and I-494 delayed southbound commuters as it has for the past two weeks, with traffic inching along from Rockford Road to I-394 on both routes.

The usual tight traffic developed on northbound 35W and southbound 35W heading into Minneapolis.

East metro drivers saw little in the way of problems, but next week they likely will. Big changes are in store along 35E between downtown St. Paul and I-694.