The Texas Department of Transportation is prepared to unleash a major roadway project on a portion of LBJ Freeway to increase capacity and relieve congestion.

The state agency awarded a reconstruction contract on 11 miles of Interstate 635 (LBJ Freeway) to a joint venture of Fluor and Balfour Beatty Infrastructure Inc.

The project comes at a time when the I-635 Corridor is back in the news — a portion of the highway will serve as an entry point to the Dallas Midtown and Park Heritage mixed-use projects, which will eventually infill a dated DFW neighborhood with luxury offices, apartments and retail.

As part of this infrastructure project, the JV will work on a stretch of I-635 running east of U.S. Highway 75 to I-30. The firms are slated to reconstruct and improve the I-30 interchange and a part of I-30 running from west of Gus Thomasson Road to east of North Galloway Avenue.

The firms also will add a general purpose lane in each direction and rebuild an existing managed lane in each direction on a critical portion of I-635, which carries 200,000 vehicles per day.

Frontage roads and intersections also will be improved to deal with growing congestion.

The project will employ as many as 500 craft workers and is slated for completion in 2024.