VTrans outlines stormwater grant programs, salt‑shed funding and MRGP support for Vermont towns

Montpelier — Joel Perrigo, municipal assistance program manager at the Vermont Agency of Transportation, told the House Transportation Committee on Feb. 7, 2025, that VTrans uses a mix of federal Transportation Alternatives (TA) funds and state Clean Water dollars to underwrite municipal stormwater and road‑erosion projects, including sand‑and‑salt sheds, culvert replacements and roadside stormwater treatments.

Perrigo said the TA set‑aside that feeds VTrans’s municipal mitigation category rose after the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. “When IIJA passed, it increased that set aside to 4,300,000,” Perrigo said, and VTrans has been awarding roughly half that set‑aside to environmental mitigation projects. He said VTrans also proposes flexing an additional $1.4 million of federal formula funds into the municipal mitigation category.

Why it matters: the funding supports municipal compliance with the Municipal Roads General Permit (MRGP), and helps towns pay for scoping, design and construction of projects that reduce road‑related phosphorus runoff. Perrigo told the committee federally funded TA grants are typically 80% federal and 20% local match and that federally funded projects generally follow a federal‑aid development process that can take about three to five years from scoping to construction.

Most important details: Perrigo summarized program amounts and recent awards. He said the TA set‑aside historically totaled about $2.2 million, rose to $4.3 million…