GERING, Neb. - Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman says supporters of a project to complete the Heartland Expressway may have to give up a little to see the project move forward.

Federal Highway Administration and Department of Roads representatives will be in western Nebraska next month to talk with local officials about the design of the expressway as it cuts through Nebraska's Panhandle.

The highway project was designed in the late 1970s to link Denver and Rapid City by way of the Nebraska Panhandle but has struggled for funding.

South Dakota is farther along in construction of its portion of the Heartland Expressway than Nebraska, thanks to a $67.5 million federal earmark, of which $61 million has been received by the state Department of Transportation, according to regional engineer Todd Seaman. Those funds, which require an 80/20 federal/state dollar match, are dedicated to creating a four-lane roadway between Maverick Junction and the state border, just north of Chadron, Neb.

In South Dakota, grading work is being done now on about 8 miles of Highway 18/385 between Maverick Junction near Hot Springs and Smithwick Road. By November, Seaman expects to have two additional lanes built to Smithwick Road. Those new lanes will be surfaced in 2010, and all four lanes will be open to traffic sometime in the fall of next year, Seaman said.

Target completion date to the Nebraska border is 2011. Two grading projects, Smith to Oehlrichs and Oehlrichs to Nebraska, are planned for 2010.

If completed as designed, the expressway will provide multilane divided-highway access between Rapid City and Denver by way of Alliance, Neb., Scottsbluff, Neb., and Brush, Colo. Nebraska's four-lane road only exists between Scottsbluff and Interstate 80. Heineman said there may be areas in the sparsely populated Nebraska Panhandle where all sides agree the expressway should be only a "super 2-lane" rather than a four-lane expressway until more money is available. The definition of a super two-lane includes wider, more gently sloping shoulders.