McCandless's Walmart Project Clears Red Tape, Plans Moving Ahead
McCANDLESS (KDKA) -- For years, there has been talk about a Walmart opening in McCandless, and now, there may finally be some progress.
As it has for almost two years, all remains quiet at this time at the site, but movement towards building the store has gotten past the legal challenges in court and onto the state regulatory process.
"Walmart right now is in state agency court," said McCandless Town Manager Toby Cordek.
The retail giant is awaiting a review of its environmental plan, which is now in the hands of the state Department of Environmental Protection, and the traffic management plan most recently returned to Walmart from PennDOT.
"We're just waiting for them to resubmit their information for us to do another review," said PennDOT District 11 Traffic Engineer Todd Kravits.
But Kravits says it's down to the dotting of I's and crossing of T's.
"We're pretty close to the finish line here," he said. "We're about 90 percent."
After that, it's on to construction. KDKA contacted Walmart on Tuesday for a timeline, but the company did not want to specify.
But regulatory approval by spring could open the way for work to start, and if the Moon Township Walmart - which opened a couple weeks ago is any indication - it will take about of year or so of construction.
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Meanwhile, just up McKnight Road at McCandless Crossing, the light at Cumberland Road is going to get a tad longer with the addition of protected left turns for safety reasons.
"All the way around the intersection of Cumberland and McKnight [Road], and Cumberland and Babcock [Boulevard]," said Cordek.
In the heart of the McKnight Road business district, the cameras and sensors are now in for the intelligent traffic system.
However, Kravits says, "We've just receive all the equipment that we need, the computers that actually run the traffic signals, so we're going to be installing those over the next few months."
So, no relief for this holiday shopping season.
"Really, that system is not going to be operable until next spring," Kravits said.
