The I-10 and Americas interchange has been open for about two days and you can see it is helping traffic flow in far east El Paso. A majority of the detours and orange barrels have been moved out of the way, but they will be back soon.

The Texas Department of Transportation began the first and largest phase of the I-10 and Americas interchange in 2010, creating three bridges to help traffic flow between Loop 375 and I-10.

Crews were anticipating finishing this phase sometime in 2013 but finished ahead of schedule and opened up the ramps that connect south and northbound traffic on Loop 375 to I-10 west and eastbound traffic on I-10 to Loop 375 north.

But with the growth in far east El Paso, TxDOT's district engineer, Bob Bielek, said more ramps are necessary to handle all the traffic. There are two other phases to create five more.

"Starting in February, we'll be going to the next three direct connectors, which will leave two more that will be done in the future. So I can promise everyone locally they're not going to see the orange barrels just move for a short period of time and then move back into place. We will be designing the last two direct connectors while we finish the last three. Fortunately the next phase won't cause as much impact on drivers but we will have to still cross I-10 several times and hang beams but not nearly as much as this first phase," he said.

TxDOT has two other major projects under way to finish connecting Loop 375 and ease congestion on I-10, but it is also completing another project in far east El Paso to help another area of town that continues to grow.

The Zaragoza connector project began in January. Crews are working on two ramps that allow traffic to flow on and off of Loop 375 to Zaragoza Road to alleviate congestion at the busy intersection. The project will be complete in November.