GAINESVILLE, TX - A major highway construction project that's been over a decade in the making is finally seeing progress. The US 82 and I-35 Interchange in Gainesville has been in need of remodeling for years, but the project could never get underway due to a lack of funding.

But on Monday, the Texas Department of Transportation announced after a massive cooperative effort by TxDot and the City of Gainesville, the money was finally granted to fund the interchange project.

"It's one of the largest intersections that we have so it's a very important project to TxDOT as well as Gainesville,” said Michael Hallum, TXDOT Gainesville Area Engineer.

Both Tex-dot and Gainesville city officials say it will fix an area that's been a problem for years. Currently about 40,000 vehicles travel through the interchange every day, and a quarter of that traffic is large semi-trucks.

"We've got our interchange here with the clover leaf ramps that aren't very safe. They’ve got real tight turning radiuses, we've had a number of trucks turned over trying to make the turns,” said Hallum.

But those 18 wheelers are just part of a bigger problem, where two-way frontage roads and clover leaf exits make driving from California Street up to 82 dangerous.

"There's areas where people are going east on California Street, when you take to turn north on 35 several people accidentally turn into the oncoming traffic lane because they're just not used to that any longer. And because of issues like that it's imperative for safety,” said Gainesville City Manager Barry Sullivan.

Plans to fix the interchange have been in the works since 1999, but TXDOT just now received $11.3 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to fund the $14.3 million project.

The remaining $3 million will come from the Tex-dot Wichita Falls district’s own maintenance funds. That district serves nine counties, and will be spending a third of their funds on this single project.

“That is a huge deal for a district engineer to use some of those maintenance funds to close the gap, because to use that much money on one project is magnificent for us,” said Sullivan.

Completing the frontage roads to connect all the way to 82 will be just one of the benefits to the city. Currently the service roads come to a dead end, leaving large amounts of property land locked.

“It's going to help economically Gainesville because it's going to open up some property that otherwise couldn't be used,” said Hallum.

But TXDOT and Gainesville know the dangers of construction in such a busy area. That’s why Hallum said most work will be done on the frontage roads and they will minimize lane closures on I-35.

"Whereas before we had closures night and day for months on end, this right here will be just for one night here, one night there, so we’ll limit our exposure on I-35,” he said.

The actual length of construction will only be about two miles long. But it will fix all frontage roads, widen the 82 bridge over I-35 and redo exits at the interchange. Bidding starts in September and construction should start in the beginning of 2011 and will last about two years.