New Walmart Could Bring Extra Traffic To McCandless
MT. LEBANON (KDKA) – After its original tenants of Kmart and Kroger, one corner in McCandless has been a retail underachiever.
But that will change if Walmart gets the I's dotted and the T's crossed.
"I like Walmart and I have to kind of travel far to go to Walmart," said one shopper.
The plan is to demolish the existing buildings to make room for the superstore.
"Those buildings will have to be demolished in order for the Walmart to be constructed," said McCandless Planning and Zoning Officer Bruce Betty.
There will be drainage and runoff changes, then construction.
"They are telling us they would like to start construction if they are able sometime next summer," said town manager Toby Cordek.
It will be a 150,000-square-foot Walmart superstore, groceries included.
"Relative to the typical super centers, this is a smaller store," Betty said.
Not surprisingly, there are some concerns.
"I think it's going to make a really big mess of the traffic up here," one person said.
There will be no direct access to the property from McKnight Road. Instead, all the entrances and exits to the store will be off Blazer Drive, which will see improvements at both ends and widening at the store entrances.
"There are six projects that have been identified where traffic improvements would be made," Cordek said.
That includes adding stacking lanes to handle traffic turning onto Blazer Driver from McKnight.
In all, Blazer is expected to see a 34 percent increase in traffic once the store is open.
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