The Wednesday rush hour got off to rough and tumble start with a rollover on the frontage road of eastbound 394 at Ridgedale Drive and a crash on southbound Hwy. 252 at 85th Avenue that led to a lane closure.
Things settled down after 6 a.m. and traffic moved swiftly on most metro area freeways and highways. A crash around 7:50 a.m. on the Crosstown at Hiawatha Avenue led to a big back up for eastbound drivers. At one time the line stretched back to Cedar Avenue.
Congestion formed on eastbound 394 with the sunrise, making the trip from 494 to downtown Minneapolis a 20-minute drive.
While traffic moved well, Metro Transit's website crashed and that prevented folks from using services such as NexTrip and its rider alerts. The site was still down as of 9 a.m. The agency said it was working to fix it as soon as possible. The Met Council site also was offline.
I'll be back Thursday with more live traffic reports. Until then, drive safely.
