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.

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

This is an excerpt — a full story appears in the Butler Eagle.