LEWISTON – Wal-Mart’s recent announcement that it will be building fewer supercenters this year is not expected to imperil the Exit 80 project.

“We’re certainly going to continue growing in Maine,” said John Simley, spokesman for the huge retailer, citing the state’s tremendous demand for stores. “There might be a couple weeks’ delay (in the timeline) … I can’t say specifically.”

Simley said the corporation has not decided which specific stores will be affected by a deferment announced after a shareholders’ meeting last Friday. Wal-Mart issued a statement that it would be scaling back construction of new supercenters this fiscal year to lower expenditures. In October 2006, it announced plans to build between 265 and 270 supercenters in the U.S. That number was revised to between 190 and 200 Friday.

Of the new construction projects, about 70 are relocations and 40 are expansions of existing stores. Eighty of the new stores that were expected to open in January 2008 will be pushed back to 2009, according to a statement on the company’s Web site.

Local officials aren’t worried about the status of the Exit 80 project.

“I believe it is firing on all cylinders; in fact, I just exchanged e-mails with DEP today around traffic movement permits,” said Lincoln Jeffers, the city’s economic development director. “At this time, we’ve had no indication that this project is not going forward.”

Last fall Wal-Mart also revised its national construction schedule downward, but the Exit 80 project got a thorough corporate review and was green-lighted, with the actual announcement of the big box coming in January. The store is the anchor for a 35-acre retail parcel between the Maine Turnpike and Alfred Plourde Parkway.

Jeffers said the project is under review by the Department of Environmental Protection and the Army Corps of Engineers, and that progress is being made. This week, city planner Dave Hediger was working with engineers at the site to resolve some of the environmental issues, Jeffers said.

Once the project clears the state regulatory process, work can begin on the 191,000-square-foot store.

“I hope we can break ground this fall, but it’s out of our hands,” Jeffers said. “It’s at the state level now.”