While commuters in the north and east metro sailed along without issue Wednesday morning, those in the south and west did not.
A light snow that began falling around 7 a.m. caused havoc for commuters, especially those who used Hwy. 212 and Hwy. 169 in Chaska and Shakopee respectively. The snow also hampered the drive on I-35 through Lakeville and northern Dakota County.
A rash of spin outs after 7:45 a.m. with a crashes tossed in for good measure bound up traffic on eastbound Hwy. 212 from west of Hwy. 41 to Prairie Center Drive. The highway became snow covered quickly and the slick conditions kept the drive slow.
Both directions of Hwy. 169 on the so called Shakopee bypass turned into a parking lot after 8 a.m. Crashes northbound at Canterbury Road and southbound at Hwy. 169 had traffic creeping along. The deteriorating conditions are likely to continue through mid morning until the snow subsides.
Even in the core of the metro, greasy roads led to spin outs. One on southbound Hwy. 169 around 8 a.m. had traffic bound up from Cedar Lake Road back to Plymouth Avenue. Other spin outs were reported on I-494 at Flying Cloud Drive and Hwy. 100 at 77th Avenue.
In downtown Minneapolis, the 7 to 8 a.m hour brought minor delays for westbound 94 drivers as crashes and stalls at 3rd Avenue had traffic bogged down from Portland Avenue to the Lowry Hill Tunnel.
I-35 in Lakeville was slick and that led to a couple spin outs between 210th Street to Crystal Lake Blvd.
