How one West Islander's commute on Highway 20 East changed
Melissa Fundira | CBC News | Posted: October 17, 2016 10:17 PM | Last Updated: October 17, 2016
Pointe-Claire man's 25-minute commute to downtown Montreal now 15 minutes longer with lane closure
Kevin Ammerman's commute to downtown Montreal from his home in Pointe-Claire usually takes him about 25 minutes on Highway 20 East.
But Monday was no typical day to be driving on that highway.
Due to work on the new Turcot Interchange, one lane connecting Highway 20 East to the Ville-Marie Expressway is now blocked off — until 2018.
Commuters have been advised to use a different route, change their schedule, take public transit, or be prepared to sit in traffic.
Ammerman bravely opted 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, Ammerman feared the worst.
"There's a lot of traffic. It's going to be busy," he said.
Approaching the heart of the construction zone, traffic did grind to a crawl — but not to a complete halt.
Despite the construction work, traffic was "moving faster than expected," Ammerman said.
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," as Transports Québec spokeswoman Nomba Danielle said.
Many commuters heeded the Transport Ministry's advice, with many commuters moving to Highway 40 or trying public transit.
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Ammerman said if another 10 to 15 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 to permanently close in mid-November between the Turcot and Atwater exit, and with only two lanes to replace it on Highway 136, Ammerman said he is "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."
How is the roadwork around the new Turcot Interchange changing your commute? Let us know on Facebook or email us at webquebec@cbc.ca.