Wednesday's rush hour started out sleepy, but when it woke up it delivered a spate of crashes and some police drama to spice things up.
The action began around 7:20 a.m. when two separate wrecks jammed traffic on westbound 694. The wrecks on the Mississippi River bridge had traffic backed up to Long Lake Road at the worst and kept travel times high for nearly an hour.
About the same time, three vehicles collided on the Wakota Bridge, bringing westbound 494 traffic to a grind from Bailey Road to Hardman Avenue.
Commuters on eastbound 394 got caught in a traffic jam just after 8 a.m. when a crash in the HOT lane led to big delays.
In Bloomington, law enforcement descended on a neighbohood in the vicinity of 82nd Street and Humboldt Avenue to search for a robbery suspect. The search is still in progress.
The Crosstown was not immune to delays. An 8:15 a.m. wreck on westbound Crosstown tangled traffic from 43rd Avenue over to 28th Avenue. The setback cost drivers an extra 5 minutes.
Where we didn't have wrecks, congestion bogged down the drive. Eastbound Hwy. 212 crawled from Powers Blvd. to Prairie Center Drive between 7:30 a.m. and 8:10 a.m. before things loosened.
In the north, southbound 35W was sluggish most of the morning with a couple wrecks at 95th Avenue and Hwy. 10 enough to gum up traffic. That led to long trip times.
