Snowstorm sideswiped MnDOT's online road conditions tracker

Limited visibility
The snowstorm lowered the visibility of the view of the Minneapolis skyline on Monday, Nov. 10, 2014 in Minneapolis, Minn.
Yi-Chin Lee / MPR News

Getting around during Monday's snowstorm wasn't just tough on the roads. Traffic on the state's road conditions website was also slow going during the storm.

Minnesota Department of Transportation spokesman Kevin Gutknecht said that more than 120,000 people were on its 511mn.org site by the end of Monday's rush hour. The site typically gets about 67,000 hits per day.

The huge traffic jump slowed down the service and left some people unable to access the latest road reports.

But MnDOT is encouraged that Minnesotans may be checking ahead, Gutknecht added.

"It's a good way for people to kind of see what's going on," he said. "We promote. We push it. We want folks to go and check it, and we're taking steps to make sure that when things get heavy the system can handle it. Usually it can, but Monday was a pretty unique situation."

The site is available at 511mn.org and on Android and Apple app stores.

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