The $8 million widening project on Route 228 near Mars will include additional lanes, signal and drainage upgrades and a box culvert. Crews expect to have the work complete before the end of next year, about five months early.

ADAMS TWP — Twenty thousand commuters will get an early respite from construction on Route 228 because the widening project near Mars is expected to be finished well ahead of schedule.

Officials planned to have the $8 million project completed by May 2020, but after a productive summer and no major delays, crews are hoping to have the work complete before the end of next year.

“This is a capacity and congestion improvement project: improve the corridors, flow of traffic and add several lanes here. There'll be two lanes in each direction with center turn lanes and right hand turn lanes,” said Greg Schnur, construction project manager. “We started back in March of this year. We're actually ahead of schedule at this point.”

About 20,000 cars travel on the road each day, he said, a number that's only expected to increase as the area continues to be developed.

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Once complete, the stretch of road will also feature a box culvert and other drainage and traffic signal upgrades.

“We set the box culvert, that was not anticipated to go until next April, but we got that done this summer,” Schnur said. “Right now we're hoping we can finish a little bit earlier next year.”

Crews are working on the eastbound lane and expect to start paving soon.

Once that's done they can turn their attention to the westbound lane.

“We're hoping by the end of the month to start paving and possibly switch traffic this year,” Schnur said.

They originally planned to make that switch in June of next year.

While the work on this stretch is expected to be finished sooner than planned, the completion of this project will not be the end of work on Route 228.

State officials have plans for improvements throughout the entire road and this year approved $168 million for Route 228 in its 12-year transportation plan.

The plan lists numerous projects for Route 228 over the next dozen years.

“The whole corridor continues to have projects planned for it,” said Brian Steffy, assistant construction engineer. “So as funding becomes available each section will go to the next one. We just have to wait for that funding. We have multiple different projects in design right now.”

Steffy urged motorists to be cautious in work zones and to avoid risks to workers and other drivers.

Traffic in the work zone is limited to one lane in each direction and 40 mph.

“The biggest thing is safety. People are standing right alongside the road each and every day,” he said. “We want to urge people not to drive distracted, try to pay attention (when) you're coming through the work zones. Everybody wants to get home at night.”