The project has been "on the council's books" since 1957.

Council staff will on Friday meet with landowners who will be told their homes will be resumed.

It means 38 homes will be completely resumed on Lytton Road and seven other properties partially resumed as work starts in 2018 on the $115 million stage 1 of the project.

Future stages could affect some of Brisbane's most exclusive riverside residences.

All resumptions – where council would buy the homes – would be on the river side of Lytton Street between Latrobe Road and Canning Bridge over Norman Creek.

Previously there were 63 homes on both sides of Lytton Road to be either partially or fully resumed.

The Lytton Road stretch at East Brisbane sits between Brisbane's most congested road corridors – Stanley Street past the 'Gabba – and the city's third most-congested stretch of road, Wynnum Road.

Until Thursday morning, council had proposed widening Lytton Road and Wynnum Road up to Riding Road from four lanes to five lanes for $60 million.

However, with Wynnum Road now carrying more than 50,000 vehicles a day, council has this week decided to widen the road to six lanes.

Of the $115 million cost, $60 million is set aside for property resumptions.

Council believes adding the two extra lanes will halve travel time along that stretch of Lytton Road in peak hours.

"In the end, this project needs to happen," Deputy Mayor Cr Adrian Schrinner said.

"If we wait for 10 years, can you imagine the value if the land 10 years down the track," he said.

Cr Shrinner said traffic congestion was now costing around $1.3 billion.

"Without the right level of investment in our transport system, this could rise to $3 billion by 2020," he said.

Cr Schrinner said because council owned Mowbray Park – where several metres, some trees and buildings would be lost to the wider road  – it had decided to concentrate all property resumptions on the river side of Lytton Road.

There are also three heritage-listed properties on the opposite, southern side of the road, making the project more complex, he said.

Council approved the major changes to the project this week.

They include:

• All 45 property resumptions to be on the river side of Lytton Road/Wynnum Road;
• Project to run from Latrobe Street to the Canning Bridge over Norman Creek (stage 1);
• A new wider Norman Creek bridge after 2020;
• Two extra lanes; one inbound and one outbound;
• Concept finished by mid 2015, construction starts in 2018 and finished by 2020;
• Existing intersection of Laidlaw Avenue with Lytton Road to be closed and turned into a cul-de-sac;
• New Laidley Avenue intersection moves towards Walter Avenue.

Lytton Road's lanes will be widened – from 2.8 metres to 3.3 metres – and the troublesome intersection at Heidelberg Street – where there has been 50 "significant" accidents improved.

"A number of these have been head-on collisions," Cr Schrinner said.

"So that is something on the upside."

Bus stops along the section of the road will be "indented" into the new six lane road to improve the traffic flow and there are plans to remove some of the bus stops.

Cr Schrinner said council expected some local residents to be upset.

"I expect the wider community will be supportive of the plans," he said.

"However I am sure there will be some local objections, and I am sure this project will be no different.

"But, as I've said, in the end, there is no doubt that this project needs to happen."

The money to build the project comes from council's decision to lease the city's Legacy Way tunnel to Queensland Motorways, from which BCC receives more than $1 billion.

That $1 billion will fund road widening projects on Kingsford Smith Drive and Lytton Road/Wynnum Road.

Kingsford Smith Drive begins construction in 2015 - after the Legacy Way tunnel project is completed.

Two community meetings on the Wynnum Road project are planned.

The first will be held on October 29 at Eastern Suburbs Football Club from 3pm to 7pm, while the second will be held at the Norman Park Bowls Club from 9am to noon on November 1.

The complete project will continue a cost of "several hundred" million dollars, Cr Shrinner said.

The next stages continue past the Canning Bridge, past Hawthorne Road and down to Riding Road at Morningside.