Crews began expanding Franklin Road from two to five lanes between Moores Lane and Concord Road.
23,000 people use that section of Franklin Road according to the Tennessee Department of Transportation.
Mark Bates said, "In the afternoons, leaving and trying to come back, is a problem because sometimes the traffic's backed up a mile from here in front of my neighborhood!"
On Tuesday, state officials broke ground, widening the corridor for nearly $27 million of taxpayer dollars.
There are several businesses that will be affected. They planned on keeping two lanes open during the day time construction.
The owner of Mark Bates Landscaping and Garden Center said the work is already affecting him.
TDOT recently acquired part of the property he leases at for the expansion.
Bates said, "We had to move out of it last January and build another office back further onto the property."
Franklin Road is already at 5 lanes North of Concord Road. The finished project may look something like that.
Governor Bill Haslam said, "There's some short term pain for long term gain. But I think what TDOT has worked really hard at is recognizing that. People still have to go about life. And so they've worked hard to make that traffic flow as smooth as possible."
Governor Haslam was at the groundbreaking along with the TDOT commissioner.
Commissioner John Schroer said he's doing everything in his power to make sure the project pays off.
Schroer said, "I have a friend that lives a quarter mile from here and he texted me over the weekend and said just want you to know I'm going to hate you for the next 2 or 3 years and I said well that's fine. But you'll be happy when it's over."
The first year of construction will be based around utility companies. They will also be laying down communications fiber.
Schroer said, "There's lots of utilities in the roads, that we've got to take care of."
Businesses hoped customers knew that they would stay open.
Bates said, "We've known it's been coming for a while and actually there was a plan to do it 29 years ago when I first started in business and it's only just now coming to fruition. So we're not excited about it, but it's a part of the change that Nashville is going through and it's gotta happen."
Officials estimated the project would be complete by October of 2020.
