Thursday's morning rush hour ends with a big mess in downtown Minneapolis. A trio of crashes between Cedar Avenue and the Lowry Hill Tunnel has westbound traffic snarled from Hwy. 280 to the tunnel. Add in one at Dale Street and the drive from the eastside of St. Paul to downtown Minneapolis at 35 minutes.
The misery for eastbound drivers begins at 7th Street. That's due to a left-lane blocking wreck at LaSalle Avenue. Eastbound 394 drivers also are getting caught in the mess with bumper to bumper traffic from Hwy. 100 to the downtown exits.
In south Minneapolis, a crash in the HOT lane of northbound 35W at 46th Street has gummed things up as far back as the Crosstown Common. From the north, southbound 35W drivers feel the vile flow from Johnson Street to Hiawatha Avenue.
The late hijinx sort of sums up how the rest of the commute went. Roads may have had just enough black ice to cause spinouts and crashes. By far, the east metro suffered the most with westbound 94 and northbound Hwy. 52 running at a snail's pace most of the morning.
Westbound 694 also saw misery with a wreck on the Mississippi River bridge shortly after 7 a.m.
In the south and west metro, drivers sailed along without much trouble. They deserved it after yesterday's miserable drive and spate of wrecks.
