A stretch of Route 28 already known for significant traffic entanglements may see some improvement by next year as plans to build a new Lowe’s store, which include a $2 million investment into road work, move forward.

Planning Director Ross Moldoff called the potential road upgrades a “huge benefit” for the town, which he says has not shown any interest in tackling the current congestion problem along the Route 28 strip.

“(It’s) a section of road that is severely congested with massive traffic back-ups that the town hasn’t shown any inclination to funding any improvements,” Moldoff said. “It’s a huge improvement for the town.”

The proposed site of the new store, on the border between Methuen, Mass., and Salem, has been known for traffic congestion, according to Moldoff, sometimes handling 35,000 vehicles a day. With a roughly estimated increase of several hundred more car trips per hour on that stretch of road after Lowe’s opens for business, officials made improving the roadway a must from the get-go.

“The Planning Board made it pretty clear that we have to solve that problem,” said James Keller, chairman of the board. “The board was pretty adamant that in order for that size of a project to occur that those improvements were needed.”

Marc LaVoie, project manager for W/S Development Associates, said the potential impact to the already heavily congested roadway had been a major concern working with the town. Upgrades will be made to three intersections – including coordinating traffic lights – and the possible addition of a turning lane to keep traffic moving in either direction.

LaVoie said he had worked with the Planning Board for over a year to decide what upgrades would be needed in order for the newly developed plaza to open by the spring of 2009. If all goes as planned, construction could begin over the winter.

According to Moldoff, Salem has a long history of asking developers to make improvements on the town’s busiest public roads. When Wal-Mart and Target – also located on the Route 28 strip – came to town, officials asked that the projects include substantial roadwork.

The Mall at Rockingham Park set the record, Moldoff said, with a $20 million infrastructure improvement plan that upgraded roads as far away as 2 or 3 miles from the actual site.

“They’re being asked to mitigate their impact, but because of their new project, they’re going to bring in more traffic,” Moldoff said. “They’re providing a big benefit to the town because they’re fixing or improving a site that is currently pretty congested.”

Not all potential developers are asked to make infrastructure improvements for the town. The construction of a Taco Bell fast-food restaurant in Salem did not warrant roadwork, but by contrast, the new Lowe’s is estimated to generate enough in revenue to cover the cost of the roadway improvements, Moldodff said.

Right now the proposed site of the Lowe’s is what Moldoff called an “underdeveloped shopping center that is largely void of tenants and includes a closed Marshall’s department store and an empty supermarket. By the time the newly developed plaza is expected to reopen – with a newly rebuilt Staples office supply store and a Sovereign Bank – Moldoff expects to see a lessening of traffic congestion on Route 28 rather than an increase.

“The situation will be better after adding the new traffic into Lowe’s than it is today,” he said. Keller said the proposed improvements have made the Planning Board comfortable with the Lowe’s project.

Because the upgrades will both offset the increased traffic created by the development of the Lowe’s store and tackle the already existing congestion, the development will result in a win-win situation for Salem and drivers alike.

“From a town’s perspective, it does two things,” Keller said. “It was essential that Lowe’s mitigate the specific traffic, and secondly the improvement should alleviate the significant congestion that occurs there on a daily basis. From Salem’s perspective, it will allow free flowing traffic into town.”