It was more than a decade ago that Napa County voters approved Measure A, a sales tax increase to support the massive effort to protect Napa from common and sometimes disastrous winter floods.

In the years since, the Napa River flood control effort has seen its ups and downs.

The ups include the many improvements to date, including the creation of new bridges, environmentally friendly flood basins and the downtown flood wall and river path. These accomplishments have helped the town stay dry in winter storms in recent years, even though the project is nowhere near complete.

Most of the downs have centered on delays and lack of funding. While Measure A funds paid by local and visitors have more than kept pace with expectations, contributions from the federal and state governments have not. The state of California is tens of  millions behind in its support for the project, and with the state wallowing in huge deficits, nobody in his or her right mind would expect to see that money anytime soon.

Federal funding has also lagged badly, coming in trickles when project leaders hoped for a steady stream. That is, until this year, when a proverbial flood of money washed in from the economic stimulus package, bankrolling the project for three years of ambitious work.

Today, the front page of the Register features a detailed map and explanation of what to expect over the next three years.

The three main features are:

•  Necessary work on the railroad right of way, clearing the last of the man-made encumbrances to high flows on the Napa River.

•  Major headway on Napa Creek, which with homes hard by its steep banks is prone to floods and wreckage after short but intense periods of showers.

•   Design and  perhaps the beginning of work on the bypass channel, a huge cut in the ground from the former China Point to the top of the Oxbow, northeast of downtown. The goal is to create a groove for flood waters to follow instead of backing up along the sinuous Oxbow. While the purpose of the broad channel is to quickly push water toward the flood terraces south of town, the channel will spend most of its days as a park.

With about $100 million on hand for the next few years and shovel-ready work to be done, the Napa River/Napa Creek Flood Control project is entering a fast-moving phase.

Perhaps, despite the waiting game we’ve become accustomed to, the project will be complete by 2015, and those who backed Measure A in 1998 and the rest of us who’ve watched and waited patiently will have something to celebrate.