Commuters, care workers and funeral guests were all left late when they were caught in a traffic "nightmare" in Clifton.
Friday, February 13, was the first morning of two-months of yet more road works to widen the A453.
Tram works are also ongoing in Clifton and Green Lane has now been closed to traffic turning right off the A453.
Some drivers in Nobel Road, near Crusader Island, said they had been stuck in traffic for up to an hour and a half.
Care worker Stephen Lamb, of Arnold, was already late for his first home visit of the day - in Fabis Drive, Clifton, at 9am.
"It's really putting me behind," the 52-year-old said. "I'm late for my first job and it's going to affect all four of the people I'm going to see today."
Engineer Andy Ward had left extra time to get through Nottingham as he made his way to a funeral in Lincoln.
"I've been sat here for an hour and a half," he said. "It's backed up as far as the M1. It's usually bad through Nottingham, but today is even worse. I'm going to be late for a funeral. It's a nightmare.
"Building roads to cause all this chaos is appalling. What are they playing at?"
Ruth Wilson was running late for her job at Gala Bingo in Castle Boulevard. "This is the worst it has ever been," she said. "I was expecting it to be bad but I allowed an extra 45 minutes and I'm still late.
"I've been on the road since 7.30am," the 61-year-old said at 9.05am. "Hopefully with half term next week it will be bearable."
Mother-of-two Kelly Scott decided to walk her children to Glapton Academy when she usually drops them off. But she does not think the latest work has made the gridlock any worse.
"I've given up driving around here," said Mrs Scott, 31, of Robinson Gardens. "I don't think today is any worse than usual – that would be a tough ask. It takes longer to drive my children to school than walk them there."
But Carolyn Mitchell, of Barton Green, said Clifton lane was busier than normal.
"My son-in-law works in Nottingham and he said he was giving himself an extra 30 minutes," he said. "It is unusually bad today. I've never seen the cars queued up so far in the distance."
Mrs Mitchell, 60, does voluntary work in Loughborough on Mondays and Tuesdays. "It's going to make that trip a lot harder," she said. "I'm not looking forward to driving up Church Lane."
Passengers for Nottingham City Transport's navy buses were left waiting at temporary bus stops on the side of the A453. The company described the roadworks as "outrageous". The firm said some buses from central Clifton took an hour and a half to get to Nottingham city centre on Friday morning.
"We now find ourselves with no alternative but to cut off many Clifton residents from direct access to the main shops and facilities on Southchurch Drive," said NCT commercial manager David Astill.
The Highways Agency, which is responsible for widening the A453, has apologised for any inconvenience caused.
Project manager Rob Edwards said: "We have delayed these works as much as was possible to do so, but in order not to affect completion of our A453 scheme it is now necessary to commence the next phase of the construction of the Green Lane junction and for safety reasons this means that right hand turn manoeuvres for drivers have to be stopped whilst we carry out this work."
A spokesman for NET, the form behind the tram expansion, said "We cannot comment on the traffic management connected to the A453 construction project, but we do expect all tram related traffic restrictions in the Clifton area to be lifted by the end of the month."
