AOT maintenance director reports $23–24 million winter costs, heavy salt use and tree‑cutting for safety to Senate Transportation Committee

Ernie Patnaud, director of maintenance for the Agency of Transportation (AOT), told the Senate Transportation Committee that AOT spent roughly $23 million to $24 million on winter maintenance this season and used large quantities of salt and deicing materials.

Patnaud said, “this winter was a real Vermont winter,” and gave several figures for spending and material use during a committee exchange. He said the agency “spent right around 23,000,000 this winter” and later described the season’s total as “about $24.23, 23 and a half million.” He also told the committee the public dashboard currently used for winter metrics “only goes half a year” and that AOT completed a vendor and software switch on Dec. 31, which has limited what historical data are visible.

Why it matters: higher-than-average winter costs affect the AOT maintenance budget and could influence future budget requests and project prioritization; limits in the public dashboard restrict the committee’s ability to review year‑to‑year comparisons.

Patnaud gave multiple material‑use figures in the hearing: “we used, around a 26,000 tons of salt,” and later referenced “30,000 pounds of salt, about a million gallons.” The committee did not reconcile those numbers during the exchange. Patnaud also said that in prior years AOT’s usage figures ranged widely, and that the last two winters before this were “very, very easy winters.”

On safety and vegetation management, Patnaud said crews conducted substantial right‑of‑way tree work across all nine districts and estimated about $100,000 worth of tree cutting statewide. He described tree removal as a safety measure — to prevent trees or branches from falling on pavement — and said cutting lets more sunlight reach pavement, which improves melting and reduces salt retention in soils. Patnaud recounted an accident he had witnessed to underscore the safety rationale.

Patnaud said districts are also using available funds for “shovel‑ready” maintenance projects: “each district is doing some about a hundred thousand dollars worth of dirt work right now,” he said. He described “district leveling” as a partnership between himself and another staffer named Jeremy, and said how far dollars go depends on the work (surface shim versus deeper work).

On transparency and data, Patnaud told senators that AOT’s public dashboard is undergoing a major IT upgrade and that the current link “is not accurate” for the full year; he said staff would send the committee the dashboard link and supporting records. Committee members asked for crash‑and‑safety dashboards and whether maintenance data are considered alongside crash trends; Patnaud said maintenance reviews those data and coordinates with the relevant division and construction groups when locations show elevated crash rates.

The exchange included back‑and‑forth about specific towns and recent paving or raising work; committee members asked for location‑level detail and for the dashboard link to be circulated. No formal vote or committee action was recorded during the discussion.

Ending: Patnaud told the committee staff would circulate the dashboard link and supporting records; senators pressed for further detail on material use and on how maintenance activity and safety data are coordinated across AOT divisions.