UPDATED: 1/24/2014 – 10:22 a.m.

MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. (CBS) — Crews have reopened the eastbound lanes of Interstate 94 in Northwest Indiana, more than 18 hours after a massive chain-reaction crash killed three people, and injured more than 20 others.

I-94 was shut down between Exit 26 and Exit 40 Thursday afternoon, after nearly four dozen vehicles were involved in a pileup near Michigan City, Ind., amid whiteout conditions.

CBS 2’s Courtney Gousman reports crews spent more than 18 hours pulling injured victims out of vehicles, removing the wrecked cars and trucks, cleaning up debris, and then clearing the road of snow and ice before reopening the eastbound lanes of I-94 between Michigan City and the Michigan state line around 9 a.m. Friday. Eastbound I-94 between Michigan City and Chesterton reopened by 10 a.m. Friday.

3 Dead In Massive Pileup On I-94 Near Michigan City

It took about four hours just to get everyone out of their vehicles, because of how badly damaged they were.

“Our challenges, of course, was first getting to all our injuries parties, and identifying those folks, and getting them the emergency assistance they need,” said Indiana State Police Lt. Jerry Williams.

Police on Friday identified the three people who died: Marilyn Wolma, 65, and Thomas Wolma, 67, a couple from Grand Rapids, Mich.; and Jerry Dalrymple, 65 of Chicago.

RELATED: Beverly Man Among Those Killed In I-94 Wreck

Two people were critically injured and 20 others suffered less-severe injuries.

The last of the vehicles involved in the wreck was towed away around 6:30 a.m. Friday, but crews still needed to clean up plenty of debris from the crash, and then scrape and treat the icy roadway before allowing traffic to go through again.

Indiana Department of Transportation spokesman Matt Deitchley said, although there was heavy snow at the time of the crash, the conditions on the interstate were not as bad as earlier this month, when the state shut down portions of I-80/94 and I-65 due to blowing snow and extremely limited visibility.

Crews had salted and plowed the area 20 minutes before the accident happened.

“Those whiteout conditions happened so quickly. Our crews had been out there, and as our crews were out there, they were salting and plowing, and the conditions were such that they were slick, but that’s not uncommon for any kind of a snow event,” he said. “So at that point there wasn’t a talk of closing that road down, simply because whiteout conditions weren’t warranting that at that time.”