Motorists were left fuming Tuesday afternoon as construction delays slowed traffic to a near-standstill on the Trans-Canada Highway just east of the Manitoba-Ontario border.

Sherri Mesics and her husband, Arnie Chagnon, were heading east, on their way from Winnipeg to their home in Dryden, Ont., when they hit the jam at around 1:40 p.m.

More than four hours later, at 6 p.m., they were still stuck, about 10 kilometres east of Clearwater Bay, Ont.

"Whoever is running this whole construction should be so ashamed of what they've done to all these people," Mesics told CBC News over the phone. "They did a very poor job for all of these people stranded on the road."

Mesics said she and her husband didn't have any warning about what lay in store for them as they crossed over from Manitoba into Ontario. Since hitting the long line of vehicles, she said they've only been able to move 10-20 metres at a time.

"We can't go anywhere," she said, adding the temperatures — which hit 28 C in the area Tuesday afternoon — made the wait even worse.

"It's sweltering out here, so a lot of people are trying to stay in their air-conditioned vehicles."

Another driver travelling eastbound said he gave up because the traffic jam was unlike anything he's experienced.

Bill Redekop said his vehicle crawled just 1.5 kilometres in an hour and 40 minutes. He said culvert work was behind the delays.

"We didn't know what the holdup was. We thought it must have been a horrific accident of some kind," said Redekop, who also saw no signage warning drivers of the congestion ahead.

Ontario's 511 website said the delays begin within 10 kilometres of the Ontario border and are expected to last until 8 p.m. CT Tuesday.

Once he turned around, Redekop estimated the lineup stretched seven kilometres long. He figures it would take three to four hours to cross through it.

He said a pilot vehicle has been directing traffic in both directions.

The highway information website said the construction work would continue on Wednesday and Thursday, between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m.

Officials said the work stretches from 3.8 kilometres east of Rush Bay Road to less than 1.5 km west of Red Pine Ridge Road.

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