I-35 Southbound North of Faribault Down To One Lane After Crash

Shortly after noon on Friday, I-35 Southbound at 150th Street West in Rice County, was closed down after a crash involving numerous vehicles occurred. Some of the vehicles involved were semi's which caused traffic to back up for several miles.

According to MnDOT's District 6's Twitter account:

I-35 southbound north of Faribault is closed. Seven-vehicle crash. Northbound lanes remain open. Expect travel delays southbound. Check http://511mn.org for road conditions. Slow down, watch for emergency responders on scene.

That was later upgraded 30 minutes later to advise drivers that one lane of I-35 Southbound traffic was back open, but there would still be massive delays as a snowstorm, that is expected to drop more than a foot in Rice County continued to drop precipitation at a level that has been reducing visibility to less than 1/4 of a mile.

While there hasn't been an official notice for crashes in Southern Minnesota yet, roadways are becoming almost completely covered in snow, and conditions for driving are only getting worse.

The storm is expected to end later tonight with temperatures rising over the next several days breaking nearly 50 degrees by next Wednesday.