GROVE CITY, PA. Owner to give funds to PennDOT

The state is working on plans to widen a road and build a bridge over I-79.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
GROVE CITY, Pa. -- Prime Outlets stands ready to help finance permanent traffic flow improvements along state Route 208 in front of its stores in Springfield Township.
The company has already spent $1 million on temporary improvements and has set aside nearly $600,000 more.
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is working on plans to spend that money and more to ease traffic flow in the area.
Barb Conroy, township secretary, said Prime Outlets has already spent $1 million on temporary improvements to ease congestion along what was once a rural two-lane highway near entrance and exit ramps off nearby Interstate 79.
The company, in an agreement with PennDOT, has put $568,000 in escrow to help fund more permanent improvements, she said.
PennDOT, after meeting with local officials and residents, has come up with a proposal.
Karl Ishman, assistant engineer for design for PennDOT District 1-0, said the three-lane bridge carrying Route 208 over I-79 will be widened to six lanes and the section of Route 208 that runs in front of Prime Outlets will be widened from three to seven lanes.
What's being moved
The state Route 258 intersection will be moved a couple hundred yards west, converting what is now Garrett Road (directly across Route 208 from the Prime Outlets entryway) into Route 258 north, Ishman said.
That change will allow Route 258 northbound traffic to move more freely.
The current Route 258-208 intersection will remain but won't carry the Route 258 designation. It will become an entry drive for a Sheetz store and other businesses across from Prime Outlets, Ishman said.
The plan is in the preliminary stages. Design work won't begin until next summer, he said, adding that no cost estimates have been prepared. Construction isn't likely before 2005.
The shopping complex, opened in 1994, attracts as many as 4 million visitors a year.