SOUTH PORTLAND — The state is moving forward with plans for a road and recreational path project through Cash Corner that’s part of a larger effort to ease traffic congestion along the Broadway corridor.

The Maine Department of Transportation publicly notified several landowners last week that their properties on Broadway and Main Street (Route 1) will be affected temporarily during construction, which is expected to start next spring or summer, said Justin Gove, the city’s civil engineer.

The $737,000 project features a multi-use path extension that will help connect the city’s western neighborhoods to the Greenbelt Walkway, a 5.6-mile trail that runs from the Wainwright Athletic Complex near the Scarborough line to Bug Light Park overlooking Portland Harbor.

Sponsored by the Portland Area Comprehensive Transportation System, the project also will include traffic signal upgrades where Main Street meets Broadway and Rumery Street – improvements that are intended to help move pedestrians more safely through one of busiest intersections in the state.

The MDOT is expected to seek contractors’ bids this winter, said Doug Howard, the city’s public works director.

The Cash Corner project is one of several road and pedestrian projects planned in the next few years to improve traffic flow on Broadway, a winding, mostly two-lane, cross-city artery that’s nearly unavoidable if you want to get from one side of South Portland to the other without driving far afield.

Broadway carries 13,590 to 17,840 vehicles daily through Cash Corner, a high crash location with an average of 11 vehicle accidents per year, according to the MDOT.

The most congested section of Broadway, a 1,000-foot, four-lane bottleneck between Evans and Lincoln streets, carries about 24,240 vehicles daily. The only street in the city that’s busier is the start of Western Avenue, near Westbrook Street, where traffic to and from the Maine Mall area draws more than 26,000 vehicles daily.

Concern about Broadway’s traffic troubles intensified during the recent planning process for a new state-funded middle school to be built on the site of the existing Memorial Middle School, which is just off Broadway on Wescott Road, on the west side of the city. The $69.3 million project also will replace Mahoney Middle School, which is at Broadway and Ocean Street, on the east side of the city.

To mitigate concern about compounding Broadway’s traffic problems, fifth- and sixth-graders are expected to arrive and depart at least 45 minutes later than seventh- and eighth-graders.

Municipal and school officials also hope more students will walk or ride bikes or skateboards to the new middle school and Skillin Elementary School next door. To make that a safer prospect, city voters approved borrowing an additional $2.3 million for road and sidewalk improvements near the new middle school.

In addition, the planned multi-use path extension through Cash Corner will link to a new path to be built from the Veterans’ Memorial Bridge,  along Billy Vachon Drive, Lincoln Street and Broadway, to the Greenbelt Walkway where it crosses Broadway at Evans Street. The city will fund $342,000 of the $1.37 million project, including road and drainage work along Lincoln Street.

Also in the Lincoln Street area, the state is on track to build a southbound on-ramp at Exit 4 of Interstate 295. The exit currently consists of a northbound on-ramp and a southbound off-ramp.

The $2.4 million project is expected to siphon off a significant amount of Broadway traffic that’s currently heading through Cash Corner to the mall area and the Maine Turnpike, including fuel tank trucks from the city’s waterfront terminals, according to a state proposal.

Adding a southbound on-ramp at Exit 4 will remove 1,855 vehicles daily from Broadway to Westbrook Street and 1,056 vehicles daily from Main Street to the Maine Turnpike Connector, according to a traffic engineer’s projections. The city’s share of the Exit 4 project will be about $240,000.

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