MILWAUKEE -- Roll out the barrels. The orange construction barrels, that is.

Gov. Jim Doyle officially kicked off construction on Interstate 94 from Milwaukee south to the Illinois border on Monday. The seven-year, nearly $2 billion project will expand the interstate to eight lanes and make other improvements.

Doyle said it is the largest transportation project the state has ever undertaken. He said the work will create more than 2,300 jobs before it is scheduled to be done in 2016.

That section of the interstate is about 50 years old and the most widely used freeway in the state carrying 150,000 vehicles per day.

Doyle has proposed spending about $750 million on the project. It's also in line to receive federal economic stimulus money.