First National Bank has the Wiscasset Planning Board’s go-ahead for a new route out of the bank’s Gardiner Road lot. The current entrance-exit will become an entrance only, and all traffic will continue onto property the bank bought last year, according to the bank’s engineering firm on the project. An exit with left and right turning lanes will go there, Gartley & Dorsky senior engineer Andrew Hedrich told the planning board Monday night.

Member Al Cohen said a lot of fill would be needed but that the project looked logical to him. The board approved the plan, subject to an approval that members said the bank would also need from the Maine Department of Transportation.

That was still being sought; the firm has been in close contact with MDOT, emailing back and forth in recent days, Hedrich said. “I know we’re anxious to get things moving, with the construction season upon us,” he told the board.

The new signage for both the entrance and exit will be double-sided, Hedrich said. “That way, people can kind of see what’s going on there.”

As another Gartley & Dorsky representative did earlier in March, Hedrich told the board that the new traffic design will make it easier for drivers to know where to go. Until now, users of the bank’s drive-through have had to make a u-turn to return to the entrance-exit, William Gartley said when the board had its first look at the plans, March 14.

“Islands are kind of all over the place but I think once those are removed it’ll just be a natural transition,” Hedrich said Monday night. “Your eyes will just kind of go where they’re supposed to go ... rather than be stuck on three different ways to go.”

Planning Board Chairman Ray Soule remarked on the existing traffic setup. “I think when they designed that, they were using their imagination.”

“It was definitely interesting, that’s for sure,” Hedrich said, laughing. “So this should be a nice, clean simple approach to it,” he added as he motioned to the plans on an easel.

The board asked about the bank’s future plans for the remainder of the property purchased in 2015. The building was once a home and most recently served as the Wiscasset Newspaper office.

The exit route keeps the building and goes onto the front yard, Hedrich said.

The remaining, approximately 1.1 acre where the building lies may be resold, but no decisions have been made, First National Bank’s facilities manager Scott Walker told the board. The bank recently changed its name from The First, Walker said.