JOHNSTON — Boom! Boom! Boom!

Contractors are blasting again out behind Stop & Shop, making room for the town’s latest housing project — a $47- million, 300-unit apartment complex.

It’s known as The Groves at Johnston. And local officials figure it will bring more traffic and people to town when it’s finished about two years from now.

“It’s going to be a real challenge,” Mayor William R. Macera said yesterday.

Still, officials also acknowledge that the complex will increase the availability of affordable housing in Johnston.

In fact, state housing officials hope The Groves project can serve as a model for affordable housing projects in other towns.

The complex, including 150 two-bedroom units, 75 one-bedroom units and 75 three-bedroom units, is being built on a 49-acre parcel east of commercial plazas on Atwood Avenue and north of Route 6.

When finished, 60 of the complex’s 300 units will qualify as affordable housing.

The Groves complex is unusual because its Massachusetts developer, Dolben Inc., plans to use revenues from the higher-priced units to cover the costs of offering affordable housing, Ventura said.

The developer will receive very little grant support, if any, from the government, said Carol Ventura, Rhode Island Housing’s director of development.

“This is the type of development we want to do across the state,” said Ventura, who estimated the total project cost at about $47 million..

The two-bedroom affordable units will rent at $987 and the three-bedroom units will rent at $1,141 per month, Ventura said. Monthly rents for the complex’s other 260 units will cost $1,500 to $1,700, she said.

At present, the town has 11,526 housing units. Of those, 938 — or 8.14 percent — are considered affordable for people of low- to moderate-income.

Motorists will access the project via Federal Way and Old Pocasset Lane, off Hartford Avenue, according to Johnston’s town planner, Jeanne Tracey-McAreavey.

But residents will have easy walking access to Stop & Shop and Atwood Avenue, she added.

“It’s a perfect setting for it,” she said.

Macera said he will ask the town’s tax assessors to forecast the amount of tax revenue to expect from the complex, although any revenues could be offset by education costs for children who move in.

“You’re talking about an influx of students into town,” Macera said.