MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Why is it eight years? Why did the construction start in November? How will this impact my commute?

These are questions we've heard from drivers about the multi-year-long I-94 East-West project that just kicked off its construction efforts.

So, now about a week after the project's start, we wanted to ask the Wisconsin Department of Transportation -- how's it going on their end?

"It's gone pretty well so far," said Eric Hanson, a construction project manager for the WisDOT. 

Many are wondering why the project will take nearly a decade.

According to Hanson, that's due to its sheer scale.

"We are fully replacing the freeway system from the ground up," Hanson said. "So new signs, structures, bridges, roadways, utilities."

But that comes at another cost, for drivers like Peter Schmidt, who lives in the Story Hill neighborhood.

"A lot of cars will be moved off the freeway I think onto Bluemound and Wisconsin Avenue, all the alternate routes so it's gonna be a mess for a long time I think," Schmidt said. "Gonna make it difficult but not much can be done I think."

Hanson said those alternate routes are being consistently monitored by a DOT traffic team.

"What we've seen so far is commuters are finding different routes or traveling at different times of the day," Hanson said. "This is a critical route on I-94, we have over 178,000 vehicles that travel through here every day, so maintaining that access for neighborhoods, businesses, healthcare, all of this is critical top priority."

When asked why the work started in November, just before the wintry season hits?

"In these winter months, we have a lot of prep work that needs to be done so we can start heavy, full-depth reconstruction in that tight cemetery section between Hawley and the stadium interchange," Hanson said. "We need to do that prep work during the offseason, so those ramps are open for the spring when the Brewers start baseball again."

Hanson added that the project relies on secured state and federal funding.

"There's a lot of work that needs to be done, not only to widen the shoulders there so we have room for our crews to do the reconstruct, there's also some prep work done at the General Mitchell ramps that we'll be doing over the winter," Hanson said. "This is a critical route, so rather than shutting down the interstate, we are maintaining at least two lanes of access through trying to do everything we can to maintain three lanes."