Hanover — Dartmouth College plans to begin work in early fall on a project to rebuild and reopen Old Tuck Drive to vehicular traffic, a cog in larger plans for major new development in the so-called West End of campus.

The Hanover Planning Board granted site plan approval for the project at its July 3 meeting. Plans call for a complete reconstruction of the road, which runs for about four-tenths of a mile from near West Wheelock Street and the Ledyard Bridge to the middle of Tuck Mall, and currently is open only to bikes and pedestrians.

Vehicle traffic would be one-way eastbound on an 11-foot travel lane, meaning motorists and bicyclists coming from Vermont could turn left onto a short road called Tuck Drive, as they can now, and then head uphill on the reopened Old Tuck Drive section toward the heart of the West End of campus. Bicyclists going downhill would have their own new 5-foot-wide “contra-flow lane,” and there also would be a 4-foot sidewalk separated from the road by a curb, according to Planning Board documents.

Traffic still would be two ways on the Tuck Drive spur that connects West Wheelock Street to Dartmouth facilities along the Connecticut River just north of the Ledyard Bridge.

“It’s part of a much larger plan to develop the West End campus, and it’s in service to that plan. If there’s a motorway, you want it to be the best it can be,” Planning Board Chairwoman Judith Esmay said of the Old Tuck Drive project on Friday. She said the Planning Board also “heartily endorses” the bike lane and sidewalk measures.

“It improves traffic and safeguards the transportation of cars and bicycles and pedestrians,” she said.

Constructed more than 100 years ago, Old Tuck Drive was closed to traffic about 15 years ago. But Dartmouth now wants to reopen the road as it plans several major projects in that part of campus, including a new parking facility, a building for the new Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society, and a $155 million building for the Thayer School of Engineering and Dartmouth’s computer science department.

Reopening the road is expected to alleviate traffic that now turns left from West Wheelock Street onto Thayer Drive, but because there already is a center turning lane that starts on the Ledyard Bridge and serves motorists turning onto Tuck Drive, a Dartmouth traffic study indicates no changes on West Wheelock are needed, according to Planning Board officials.

Dartmouth spokeswoman Diana Lawrence said the project “is basically a re-build of an existing scenic roadway which is both a restoration project and an enhancement project — making the roadway safe and functional for 21st-century uses.”

Dartmouth’s application put the estimated cost at $3 million, but Lawrence said the price tag has “not been finalized.

“Bids are being received currently and work will begin early fall barring any obstacles. The goal is to complete the re-build of the road before winter,” she said via email.

The Planning Board approval includes such conditions as receipt of an alteration of terrain permit from the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services and town staff review of a stormwater maintenance plan prior to issuance of a building permit.

John P. Gregg can be reached at jgregg@vnews.com.