SPRINGFIELD TWP - Before ASC Development proposed a 123-acre development across Interstate 79 from the Prime Outlets, the state Department of Transportation already had plans to alleviate traffic tie-ups at the interchange with Route 208.

Brian Yedinak, the PennDOT district design services engineer, said construction to widen Route 208 to six lanes is scheduled to begin in late October. This year, he said, the utilities will be moved back from the road, but by 2007 the road will be widened and the ramps connecting it to the interstate will be lengthened.

The widened road can accommodate any additional traffic brought to the area by a development, including a proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter, Yedinak said.

"When we designed it, we took into account full build-out," he said.

David Magrish, spokesman for Mercer County Citizens for Responsible Development, said traffic is his concern about the supercenter.

Magrish, who also owns the Slippery Rock Giant Eagle, is one of the leaders of the group fighting a zoning decision by the township supervisors June 6 to change the area at the northeast corner of the interchange from C-2 to C-1.

Tony Chammas, a developer with the Pittsburgh firm, said the development site stretching along the east side of the interstate north of Route 208 would include a Wal-Mart Supercenter and eight to 10 retailers. It will also probably include a restaurant, he said.

ASC has other properties in the state, including ones in Edinboro and Ebensburg. All developments are anchored by a Supercenter and shadowed by additional retailers.

Chammas said he liked the Springfield Township site because it has good visibility from the interstate and a good local community. He said he plans to start construction next spring and open the stores by December 2006.

Traffic flow was one issue he looked at before choosing to develop the site, he said.

PennDOT had already planned the project. Yedinak said the department is working at buying the final right of way. In the next two years it will widen the road, which is two lanes in some spots, to six lanes from the airport to the intersection with Route 258, including the interstate overpass.

Yedinak said the overpass will be expanded first and traffic moved to the new half of the overpass while repairs are made to the existing overpass. Delays are possible, he said, but the overpass will never be closed.

The ramps to the interstate will also be lengthened. Yedinak said the ramps were built in the 1960s and the standards have changed since then.

Traffic on I-79 on weekends and holidays has been backed up onto the interstate by traffic lights at the end of the ramps at Route 208. Yedinak said the ramp improvements are designed to prevent that.