Road construction. VTrans photo.

by C.B. Hall, Vermont Business Magazine

For the agency charged with maintaining Vermont’s vast transportation network, responsibilities cover a surprisingly broad array of projects. These include paving roadways, making drainage improvements and repairing bridges on state-owned railroads, to name just a few.

As it does every year, the Agency of Transportation to-do list for the upcoming construction season also includes improvements for the muscle-powered traveler: for example, the resurfacing and general tidying-up the 26-mile Missisquoi Valley Rail Trail between St. Albans and Richford, and construction of new trailhead amenities along the Swanton-to-Saint Johnsbury Lamoille Valley Rail Trail.

In Chittenden County, work will soon begin on another, more ambitious initiative in support of foot-powered travel: a bicycle-pedestrian bridge over I-89 in South Burlington that will keep cyclists and walkers at a safe distance from the state’s busiest stretch of roadway, U.S. 2 — Williston Road — where it crosses the interstate at Exit 14. That stretch of road sees an average of 37,363 vehicles daily, according to VTrans.

SEE LIST OF 2025 HIGHWAY PROJECTS BELOW

“I biked across there once, and I said, ’Never again,’“ South Burlington City Councilor Meaghan Emery recently told the Vermont News Service.

From the west, the $22.5 million East-West Alternative Transportation Crossing will begin on Williston Road at the Staples store, swing around the south side of the Exit 14 ramps and end on Dorset Street. Along the way, intermediate access points will connect the crossing with Quarry Hill Road on the west side of the interstate and the University Mall parking lot on the east side.

The route is entirely within South Burlington, but “we did receive letters of support from Burlington,“ said South Burlington Community Development Director Ilona Blanchard, terming the crossing “a project of regional importance.“

Roughly 80% of the funding will come from the federal government, with the city covering about 20% through revenue from tax increment financing in a state-designated TIF district, very close to the crossing, that is being developed as the heart of the state’s second-most populous city.

The federal money flows through VTrans, which, Blanchard noted, isn’t taking any cut out of the funding to defray its intermediary role. The state also owns a lot of the crossing’s right-of-way.

“They’re big supporters of the project,“ Blanchard said.

According to the agency’s project map, construction is slated to begin in August with clearing and grubbing. However, Blanchard expressed hope that it would start sooner, noting that they are putting it out to bid this spring. She projected completion of the undertaking in May 2027.

Citing a recent city study, she mentioned that an average of 275 cyclists and walkers navigate the U.S. 2 crossing on weekdays, and 434 on weekends, suggesting that these numbers would likely be far surpassed with the new crossing.

She characterized the crossing as “a, huge change and improvement.

“It will be much easier to walk to your job, or to shop,“ Blanchard said. “And it will support having additional people living here, and shopping here.“

She referred to the 933 residential units built between 2012 and 2024 in the city center, a mixed-use downtown zoning district established in 2016 that encompasses all of Exit 14 and adjoining areas, including the TIF district. New infrastructure construction began in the TIF district in 2017 to transform South Burlington into a city with a downtown, rather than just an agglomeration of suburban neighborhoods.

I-89 Projects Progressing

In Colchester, work is moving forward on another major project: the transformation of I-89’s Exit 16, the interstate’s interchange with U.S. 2/7. The busy exit will become a diverging diamond interchange. In this design, traffic on U.S. 2/7 will cross to the left side of the roadway. This facilitates left-hand turns onto the interstate’s ramps without left-turn lanes or dedicated left-turn signals. It also eliminates the need for motorists heading in the opposite direction to wait. Drivers won’t have to sit while spewing carbon-rich fumes until the left-turn phase of the traffic signals ends. This is a hassle that anyone leaving the nearby Costco and heading onto I-89 southbound knows all too well.

At each traffic light in the redesigned interchange, all vehicles will proceed straight ahead. This will simplify and quicken traffic flow, and reduce accidents at a location that sees an average of 19,013 vehicles pass under the interstate bridges daily. According to Agency of Transportation Project Manager Michael LaCroix, this location ranks eighth in Vermont for number of crashes.

Planning for the diverging diamond interchange began 13 years ago, surviving a long round of litigation over environmental issues before work on the ground began in 2023. This year’s work, the final phase of the project, will commence in July, since state budget constraints pushed the resumption of the effort back to the 2026 fiscal year, which begins July 1. The construction will include new ramps, the new crossover traffic patterns, repaving and new traffic signals, LaCroix told VermontBiz.

“Significant traffic delays are to be expected,“ he said, adding that users should refer to the project website and the agency’s weekly construction reports for updates.

LaCroix anticipated a total project cost of $20 million. Nearly all the work will be completed in 2026, but there may be “some small clean-up“ stretching into early 2027.

I-89 is also the site of another major project: the expansion of the Connecticut River crossing between White River Junction and West Lebanon, New Hampshire. This multiyear undertaking is a significant challenge, as closing the twin bridges to traffic during construction is not feasible.

Photo: Road construction. VTrans photo.

Instead, crews are adding two new travel lanes by extending the existing spans across the space between them. This will create a single, six-lane bridge. This approach allows crews to work on pairs of lanes while maintaining two open lanes in each direction.

Upon completion, the unified bridge will feature four through lanes and an auxiliary lane on each side for traffic entering or exiting at the nearby interchanges. This joint effort by the Vermont and New Hampshire transportation agencies has a total cost of $52 million, with Vermont contributing approximately 30%.

Interestingly, the state line is located not in the middle of the river, but at its western bank, as the Connecticut River belongs to New Hampshire. The oddity stems from a 1933 U.S. Supreme Court decision that cited a 1764 order-in-council by King George III that limiting Vermont’s eastern reach to the low-water mark on the river’s west side.

New Hampshire’s ownership of the river has implications for what one can do with a Vermont fishing license and with the property-tax base in the riverside towns. But it also has meant a pretty good deal for Vermont when bridges across the watercourse are built or repaired — or in this case, widened.

According to Brett Rusnock, project manager of highway design at the New Hampshire Department of Transportation, construction is currently running on time. He expected completion of the project in late summer 2026.

’Yes in My Backyard!’

In Burlington, work is ongoing for the long-awaited Champlain Parkway, a 2.8-mile connector linking I-189’s end at the Burlington-South Burlington line to downtown Burlington. Initially proposed in the 1960s, the project only began in 2022 after numerous political discussions, environmental impact assessments and legal challenges. The road will traverse the primarily residential South End of the city.

In 1965, VTrans, then the Vermont Department of Highways, proposed the Burlington Belt Line, a four-lane freeway through Burlington that included the current Champlain Parkway’s route. This project has since undergone numerous transformations: two name changes, at least seven environmental studies, a reduction to two lanes, a significant rerouting to avoid a Superfund site, a lowered speed limit of 25 mph and considerable community opposition.

The project’s long and varied history reflects the changing attitudes in American culture, shifting from the 1960s’ enthusiasm for automobiles to today’s complete-streets philosophy, which emphasizes balancing the needs of all transportation users, including cyclists, pedestrians, drivers and local residents.

Excepting “very minor items,“ Burlington Director of Public Works Chapin Spencer told VermontBiz, the parkway is now fully built and open to traffic in its central segment, between Home Avenue and Kilburn Street, where the alignment follows preexisting streets. Construction on the northern section, between Kilburn and the parkway’s northern end at Main Street, begins this spring.

It will include a general rehabilitation of the existing roadway, along with new traffic signals, new sidewalks and other enhancements for pedestrians. Rebuilding remains of the segment’s sub-base from an abortive start made on the parkway in the 1980s, paving and upgrades to stormwater systems will take place on the southern third of the route, from Home to the I-189 terminus.

Spencer said work is proceeding on schedule. He anticipated completion of the entire project in summer 2026.

The total cost of the project is difficult to estimate, given all the changes it has already endured. Spencer put the total cost since 1998, when the city took over management of the initiative from the state, at $75 million. Federal funds are covering 95% of eligible construction expenses, with the state shouldering just 3%, and the city 2%.

The related Railyard Enterprise Project bypass will eventually add a branch to the route at its north end, to lessen impacts on residential neighborhoods.

“We’ve finished conceptual design, and that project will head into the right-of-way (acquisition) phase later this year,“ said Spencer, who lives within earshot of the project.

“When I wake up every morning, one of the first things I see is one of the new traffic signals,“ he said. “Decades ago, there was a lot of concern about the project, during its early design as a four-lane, high-speed highway. Now with the bike and pedestrian accommodations and other improvements, the big opportunity here is that the new infrastructure can unleash some housing development, which we desperately need in Burlington and throughout Vermont.“

He said he was looking forward to having new neighbors, and offered a new acronym to describe his enthusiasm for the project. “I’m a YIMBY, not a NIMBY.“

Photo: Road construction. VTrans photo.

The Stuckage Project

Speaking of neologisms, Todd Sears, deputy director of the Project Development Bureau at VTrans, has introduced the term “stuckage“ to the transportation lexicon. This term refers to the frequent incidents of trucks becoming stuck on Vermont 108 through Smugglers’ Notch, a phenomenon that has earned the route notoriety.

These incidents typically occur when truck drivers, either disregarding numerous warning signs or being unaware of them, find their large vehicles trapped in the tight turns at the notch’s summit. Resolving these situations requires a costly and lengthy operation involving a heavy-duty wrecker to free the truck and guide it downhill.

Last year, down from the mountain pass on either side, Sears directed the installation of temporary chicanes, artificial curves that mimick the confines of the notch and oblige approaching truckers to test their rigs’ ability to negotiate them. The design allowed drivers to turn around with relative ease and head back down the hill if their vehicles failed the test.

The result: Not one truck got stuck in the notch, although one tour bus managed to do so. No one knows how many trucks turned around at the chicanes.

“The agency is pleased,“ Sears said. “One stuckage is the lowest number we’ve ever seen.“

The chicanes will be reinstalled this year when the notch reopens for the snow-free season. Should this second year of implementation prove as effective as the first, the chicanes could become permanent fixtures, potentially relegating “stuckages“ to mere historical anecdotes.

While the chicanes are notable, the Agency of Transporation’s seasonal plans are largely focused on the numerous projects aimed at repairing storm damage across the state’s back roads and state-owned railroads, particularly in the north. These ongoing projects highlight how the apparent increase in major storms has compelled the agency to manage a complex workload. VTrans must balance its regular operations with the urgent demands of storm damage repairs, often shifting resources between various project sites as needed.

In response to the succession of storms, multiple projects this year will include armoring, the addition of features such as rip-rapping on hillside to forestall their collapse onto adjacent roads and railways around the state. It’s a sign of the times, and of the times ahead.

“The agency continues to review our design standards and has committed to building resilient, environmentally sensitive projects as our standard practice,“ said Jeremy Reed, highway division director and chief engineer at VTrans. “By updating our standards and committing to resiliency, we see very little repeat damage in subsequent storm events."

C.B. Hall is a freelance writer from southern Vermont.

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