The drive to work Wednesday was anything but a picture postcard day as a slew of crashes hampered the commute. The action got started early with a wreck at 5 a.m. with a rollover on Hwy. 10 at Armstrong Blvd., and thing got worse from there.
Commuters on southbound 35W had to dodge four separate accidents in the area between Lake Drive and County Road J. Just as one cleared, another occurred, and that kept traffic jammed from Lexington Avenue to 694 from just after 6 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. Drive times to Minneapolis hovered around 30 minutes. At this hour, that drive is now down to 22 minutes.
Another trouble spot was on southbound Hwy. 100 through Golden Valley and St. Louis Park. A motorist stalled out in the left lane at 27th Street and simply walked away from the car. The vehicle sat in the left lane for nearly an hour from about 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. Toss in a couple crashes in the backup and that had traffic tied up back to County Road 81. Things are starting to thin out at this hour.
Other wrecks on northbound 35W at 106th Street and a short-lived one at 36th Street made for a difficult drive into downtown Minneapolis. Both have since cleared and traffic is recovering. It's a reasonable 21-minute trip from the Burnsville split to downtown at this hour.
The westbound Crosstown plugged up just after 8 a.m. due to a wreck near Hwy. 100. Motorists were riding the brakes from Penn Avenue past the scene, a 20-minute trip. That crash is now gone and travel times are dropping.
The extremely active rush hour also featured crashes on westbound 494 at Pilot Knob Road that blocked two lanes and fender benders late in the rush on westbound 94 at Lexington in St. Paul and 5th Street in Minneapolis.
East metro and northwest metro drivers sailed right along and avoided the hassles many drivers experienced.
Transit ran on time today.
