Safety and traffic improvements are coming to a well-traveled Loudon intersection near the Dunkin’ where South Village Road and Chichester Road meet Route 106.
Traffic signals will be installed, and both South Village Road and Chichester Road will get exclusive right-turn lanes to accommodate traffic.
Loudon Police Chief Dana Flanders said he hopes it’ll make the area safer.
“I think with the increased volume and business of NH 106, it makes it difficult for crossing traffic during commuting hours,” Flanders said in an email. In his five years at the police department, he said there have been several dangerous crashes at that intersection.
Much of Route 106 will also be widened over the next several years. What’s currently a two-lane road will be expanded to four lanes, while keeping the left-turn lanes at that intersection.
The first phase of widening, included with the intersection work, will extend roughly half a mile from the Soucook River bridge to just south of Hemlock Hill Drive.
The project is expected to be completed in June 2027, and two-lane traffic will be open at all times on Route 106. On the side streets, drivers may encounter alternating one-lane and two-way traffic directed by flaggers.
After that, road widening on Route 106 will continue nearly three miles north toward Clough Pond Road, according to New Hampshire’s tentative 10-year transportation plan.
The Executive Council awarded a federally funded $4.5 million contract last week to Weaver Brothers Construction Co., based in Bow, for the intersection and first phase of widening.