 In the late 2000s, planning began for a bypass around the downtown portion of the city of Brawley. An expressway would carry the routing of SR 78 north and east of the city, with an interchange at SR 111, before intersecting with the current alignment of SR 78. A Swedish company began construction on this bypass in April 2008; the first phase consisted of the portion of the bypass that is solely SR 111. The second phase of the bypass, from the western junction with SR 111 to the eastern junction with SR 78, lasted from February 2008 to June 2011. On the third phase of the project, from the junction with SR 86 west of Brawley to the western end of the completed bypass, construction began in late 2010. This project was identified in August 2010 as a project that could be affected by California state budget cuts. The Brawley Bypass, as it was known, opened on October 30, 2012.
