Count on traffic near Eastwood High School to be hectic in a few weeks and not just because of the holidays.
East side residents can expect rows of orange barrels along Montwood Drive for Christmas.

The city and El Paso Water Utilities have plans to start a major project to reconstruct the roadway between McRae Boulevard up to Zanzibar Drive and make other improvements to prevent flooding.

Sam Rodriguez, the city's engineering division manager, said the road is run down because it's heavily commuted and prone to flooding.

"Montwood is one of the major connectors that brings you into the Airways and Viscount area from the east side so it's heavily used and any time there's, rain you have standing water in the roadway. Basically there's a big drainage area that dumps into Montwood and the water tends to sit there, it doesn't flow out very well. Some residents actually have sand bags along their property line because they know that water could potentially flood up into their homes," said Rodriguez.

He told KFOX14 the city has been working on a plan to come in and fix this roadway for about two years.

The solution is an $11 million project that will last take two years to complete. While the city reconstructs the roadway, EPWU will be installing a new underground storm water system to increase the capacity of the Eastwood dam and putting in new sewer and water lines.

"While we start construction and all the other utility work we're going to have to shrink the road from a four lane to a two-lane road. So we're going to be shifting traffic onto one side of Montwood and shifting it back and forth. It is something that we have to take slow because of the amount of traffic that goes through there as well as the high school and all the pedestrian traffic," said Rodriguez.

Michael Johns grew up in the area tells KFOX14 although construction will hurt the pain is worth it.

"It's going to be inconvenient, but we're going to explain to our customers how to get here to avoid the construction. Once it's done it's going to be a benefit for the people that travel this road because a lot of people have been stranded on the side of the road and have had some serious engine damage due to sucking up water because of flooding. As for the businesses it'll be great too. We won't have flooding and it will be easier access for people coming and going during rainy times," said Johns.

Rodriguez said there isn't a set start date, but construction will begin sometime in December and is expected to be complete just before 2015.