A months-long project to improve the intersection of Haigis Parkway and heavily traveled Route 1 in Scarborough is getting under way.

The $2.35 million project, paid for by the town, will include new turning lanes to prevent traffic backups, as well as sidewalks, crosswalks, traffic islands and signals. Elements like landscaping, stone columns and signs also are planned, to create a gateway to Route 1. The work is expected to wrap up by the end of August.

Because the project was under budget, the town was able to expand the work and add left-turn lanes at the Southgate Road intersection to the south , said Town Planner Dan Bacon.

The work is part of a larger plan to improve the flow of traffic on a busy section of Route 1. Next year, construction is planned for Dunstan Corner, where Route 1 meets Pine Point Road and Broadturn Road.

The aim is to encourage drivers to use Route 1 and Haigis Parkway, two major roads, rather than Payne Road, which includes a residential section and a route to the Maine Mall area. “In order to do that, the Haigis Parkway intersection needs to work better,” Bacon said Thursday.

Work that involves measurements is scheduled to begin on Haigis Parkway on Monday, said Dickie Collins, the town’s deputy public works director.

Drainage and road work on Haigis Parkway can be done after that, said Polly Sewall, project manager for the contractor, A.H. Grover of North Yarmouth. The excavation phase will require crews to take over a portion of one lane.

The contract calls for two lanes to remain open on Route 1 during commuting times, Collins said. Two northbound lanes will be available from 6 to 9 a.m. and two southbound lanes will be open from 3 to 6 p.m.

“I don’t think there are going to be long backups of traffic because most of the work we’re doing over there is widening the roadway,” Sewall said. “We’re kind of out of the traffic.”

Message boards are up on Route 1 and Haigis Parkway to alert motorists to the project.

Scarborough, the Maine Department of Transportation and the Portland Area Comprehensive Transportation System have agreed that the town will pay for the improvements.

The Department of Transportation and PACTS will pay for 75 percent of the Dunstan Corner project, which is expected to cost $3.35 million. Scarborough has already paid its portion for the engineering work; the rest of its share will be in the proposed municipal budget.

Concerns about the volume and speed of traffic on the west end of Payne Road will be addressd later.

After the Haigis Parkway improvements are finished, the town plans to install traffic-calming measures like islands, signs and landscaping in the section near Cabela’s, to signal the transition from a commercial area to a residential area.

The Haigis Parkway improvements will overlap with a milling and paving project planned by the state for Route 1, from a point about a mile south of Haigis Parkway to the Interstate 295 spur.

That work is expected to be done at night starting at the end of May, Collins said.

Staff Writer Ann S. Kim can be contacted at 791-6383 or at: akim@pressherald.com