Improvements to Coit Road should take a major step forward this fall with the completion of the widened section of road from Main Street to Eldorado Parkway.

The 1 -mile stretch has been closed since mid-March, but construction is now more than 50 percent complete, said project manager Jason Brodigan.

The two-lane asphalt road is being reconstructed to a four-lane divided concrete road. Road work includes paving, drainage, a water transmission line, lighting, landscaping and irrigation.

Brodigan said construction is slightly behind schedule because of franchise utility conflicts, but, weather permitting, could be completed in late October or early November.

Brodigan said Coit Road is classified as a major thoroughfare on the city's thoroughfare plan and will eventually be expanded to six lanes when traffic dictates the need for more lanes.

Brodigan said the city closed the road rather than re-routing traffic through construction so the project could be finished more quickly.

"In the case of this section of Coit Road, there was also the consideration that there are no homes or businesses to maintain access for and there are two alternate routes in close proximity," he said.

Those alternate routes are Preston Road and Independence Parkway.

"The city waited to close Coit until both the Preston Road and the Independence Parkway widening projects were complete," Brodigan said.

Two other projects are planned for Coit Road, which will extend it four lanes all the way to Highway 380.

The nearly half a mile section of road from Buckeye Drive to Panther Creek Parkway is nearly through the design stage and construction is anticipated to begin later this year.

The last project, which would extend Coit Road from Panther Creek to Highway 380 and replace the current gravel road, is not yet to the design phase.

Construction on the last section is expected to begin in fall 2014.