Dartmouth $10.5 Million Route 6 Rebuild Could Begin Spring 2025

Traffic congestion on Route 6 in Dartmouth from Hathaway Road to the Dartmouth Mall has long been an issue for town officials. There appears to be a workable solution at hand.

Anyone attempting to enter Route 6 from Hathaway Road or Hathaway Road from Route 6 understands it is not a task for the fainthearted. It can be downright dangerous.

For years, state and local officials have studied a proposal to take land to create a four-way intersection between Hathaway Road and Tucker Road. The project would be monumental and quite costly.

However, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) doesn't believe such a massive undertaking is necessary to address the traffic problem.

Dartmouth Week reported MassDOT's latest plans call for "moving the Tucker Road traffic light by 100 feet and synchronizing lights from Faunce Corner Road to Hathaway Road to help ease congestion in that area of Route 6."

The paper reported MassDOT's plan also "involves adding three traffic lights where Hathaway Road and Route 6 meet creating a three-way intersection."

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Town officials, once skeptical, now say moving Tucker Road can occur in the future if the current plan doesn't work out.

MassDOT's Bob Clinton says, "Moving the Tucker Road light "creates an additional 100 feet for cars to wait for the light change, which would prevent them from backing up into the Faunce Corner Road intersection."

The publication said the plan, expected to cost $10.5 million, could begin in the spring of 2025 and take two and a half years to complete at no cost to the town.

The federal government would pay 80 percent of the cost of the project and the state the remaining 20 percent.