It's always good for commuters when I don't have to report many crashes or delays, and that was the case Thursday.
Metro drivers didn't hit too many snags. Of course, in a city this size, there are always a few.
Road construction on Hwy. 55/Hwy. 52 has caused backups of up to 2 miles through Inver Grove Heights from roughly Concord Blvd. to I-494. Two separate construction projects will have lane restrictions in place for at least the next 3 weeks.
An early crash on southbound 35W tied up traffic in Lino Lakes. The wreck at County Road 23 snarled traffic around 6:45 a.m. and caused drive times from the Forest Lake Split to downtown Minneapolis spike. That cleared about 30 minutes later, and drive times returned to a reasonable 22 to 25 minutes for the remainder of the rush.
Not much to delay drivers in the northeast and east metro and traffic rolled along just fine.
South metro drivers hit pockets of congestion and a couple fender benders on northbound 35W, but nothing that added more than a few minutes to the commute.
Transit providers didn't report any hiccups as trains and buses ran on schedule.
That's it for Thursday. I'll be back Friday with more live traffic reports and news about metro roads.
