View of a hallway in the basement of the Smith County Courthouse.

A project in the making for decades will finally become a reality after a move by Smith County voters on Tuesday.

Residents approved a $179 bond package to fund a new county courthouse and accompanying parking garage in downtown Tyler. The new structure will replace the 1955 courthouse that has a number of safety and space concerns, cited by various third-party studies done over the last 23 years.

Now that the project has been approved, what will come next?

It will take around six to eight months to finalize plans and designs, according to county officials. The parking structure will be constructed first. The anticipated start of courthouse construction is the end of 2023.

Construction is not expected to cause major disruption to downtown businesses in operation, and it will also not interrupt traffic on Broadway Avenue.

On March 2, 2021, representatives from Fitzpatrick Architects and Project Advocates gave a presentation on the planning for a new Smith County Courthouse to the commissioners court. Included in it was this fly-over video on what the new courthouse could look like in Downtown Tyler.

Watch below: