How one West Islander's commute on Highway 20 East changed

But Monday was no typicalday to be driving on that highway.

• Lousy commute downtown for West Islanders to last not months, but years

Due to work on the new Turcot Interchange, one laneconnecting Highway 20 East to theVille-MarieExpressway is now blocked off until 2018.

Commuters have been advised to use a different route, change theirschedule,take public transit,or be prepared to sit in traffic.

Ammermanbravelyopted for the last option Monday morning, despite the fact that the Transport Ministry anticipates five to six kilometres of heavy traffic heading into Montreal.

After hitting two construction zones and seeing the ominous sign of multiple tail lights ahead, Ammermanfeared the worst.

"There's a lot of traffic. It's going tobe busy," he said.

Approaching the heart of the construction zone, traffic did grindto a crawl but not to a complete halt.

Despite the construction work, traffic was "moving faster than expected," Ammerman said.

• Not a terrible 1st day: Drivers avoid Highway 20 as Turcot work shuts lane

In the end, it took him 41 minutes to get to work.

"It was worse than usual, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been," he said.

Monday morning's commute wasn't"the nightmare that everyone was expecting," asTransports Qubec spokeswoman Nomba Danielle said.

Many commuters heeded the Transport Ministry's advice, with many commuters movingtoHighway 40 or tryingpublic transit.

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Ammermansaid if another 10 to15 minutes were added to his commute, he would also probably opt to leave his car downtown and take public transit.

With Highway 720 East set topermanently close in mid-November between theTurcotand Atwater exit, andwith only two lanes to replace it on Highway 136, Ammermansaid heis "really worried about what the next phase of construction is going to do."

For the next week at least, he won't be making any changes to his commute.

"We'll ride this out and see if there's more cars on the road tomorrow or if people were scared away this morning because of the beginning of a new thing here."

• Take public transit? Move to the city? West Islanders mull options as Turcot work ramps up

How is the roadwork around the new Turcot Interchange changing your commute? Let us know on Facebook or email us at webquebec@cbc.ca.