The Thursday rush was a tame one with few crashes, but that didn't prevent log jams on I-35W. Commuters in both the north and south metro found long drive times despite decent road conditions.

In the 8 a.m. hour, the drive from Blaine to downtown Minneapolis hit 36 minutes from the Forest Lake Split to Washington Avenue with packed conditions from Hwy. 36 to Washington Avenue. Things have thinned out a bit, but that trek is still at 25 minutes.

Adding to the delays is a crash at the merge point of a construction zone at County Road 14. The highway is down to one lane in the area.

South metro drivers are moving along much better now after the clogged roads led to a 35-minute trip from the Burnsville Split to downtown Minneapolis for the heart of the rush. That trip is now at 20 minutes.

Overall traffic moved well elsewhere in the metro with ligher than normal levels. An exception between 7 and 8:15 a.m. was westbound 494. A traffic stop involving a tanker reported to have been weaving in and out of lanes jammed traffic from Dodd Road over to Hwy. 100. Debris also slowed traffic crossing the Wakota Bridge.

Our current mishaps include accidents on westbound 694 at Rice Street and northbound Hwy. 169 on the north side of the Bloomington Ferry Bridge. Eastbound 394 is dealing with a crash in the HOT lane at Louisiana Avenue.

That's it for Thursday. I will be back Friday with more live traffic reports, and news on the Drive blog.