Within the next four or five years, the current North Dartmouth Library branch will likely be no longer, but officials are continuing work on a plan for a replacement should the existing building be torn down.

With plans in the works to connect Tucker and Hathaway Roads in 2019, members of the Dartmouth Library Building Committee are in the process of picking a project manager to oversee the potential construction of a new library.

On Wednesday afternoon, the group narrowed the list down to three — Atlantic Construction, P3 Construction, and Architectural Consulting (out of New Bedford) — with a majority voting in favor of bringing in those three groups for interviews in front of the committee on Aug. 31 at 3:30 p.m.

“We’re under the assumption that, because of the Faunce Corner Road/SRPEDD project, that it’s going to go straight through the North Dartmouth branch,” said Library Building Committee Chair Suzanne McDonald. “We’re trying to get all our ducks in a row.”

Officials said the group was awarded a $50,000 grant from the state along with $25,000 from the town to plan the new branch.

The group has identified two locations — one on town-owned land near Potter School on Cross Road and one behind BJ’s Wholesale — though the Cross Road location is a more viable option because of its proximity to the road.

Town Administrator David Cressman said that the process of hiring a project manager to oversee the architect and the contractor is now required by state law.

“2019 is the projected bid date (for the road construction),” said Cressman. “It could be moved up because of how things are progressing on the project. But the town has looked at replacing that library in the past, even before they were talking about the road project.”

Library director Lynne Antunes said an original plan to construct a new library in the place of the North Dartmouth branch didn’t get through Town Meeting voters in 2005. The current project would likely have to go back to voters again because at least some town funding would be necessary.

“I think no matter what, we’re going to have to go through the town to get some money from somewhere,” added McDonald.

Officials said because of size limitations at the current branch, which was built in 1961, several programs have been cut.

“Because the existing branch is small, it’s not open as many hours as it should be,” said McDonald. “It’s not like we’re going to add more staff. We’d basically be replacing what’s there.”

She said the new building would be slightly bigger so it can accommodate more programs, especially those involving children.

“We can’t put 20 kids in there,” she said. “We want to put in an auditorium or a meeting room (with a divider) that would seat 100 people,” she added. “It’s not like it’s going to be some grandiose huge building. We want to modernize and replace what we have.”

A variety of criteria were discussed for picking the three potential managers, with past experience and proximity to the area being among those discussed.

Stanley Bielusiak, chairman of the library’s Board of Trustees, said that a second state grant could be available in the future to supplement construction costs, but that hiring a project manager and an architect must take place beforehand.

“You can’t do that until you have the project manager,” he said.