VTrans maintenance director details 'back to basics' winter plan, budget limits

BURLINGTON, Vt. — For the record, Ernie Pannell, director of maintenance for the Vermont Agency of Transportation, told the House Transportation Committee on Feb. 13 that the agency’s Snow and Ice Control Plan is the department’s central operational and budgetary priority and that winter severity largely determines what other maintenance work can be done.

Pannell said the Snow and Ice Control Plan “dictates what we’re going to do and how we’re going to do it,” and emphasized that the agency follows a “safe roads at safe speeds” approach rather than a bare-roads policy.

The plan and a small set of core responsibilities — guardrail repair, required mowing of clear zones, and snow-and-ice response — are treated as fixed priorities, Pannell told lawmakers. Other tasks, including litter pickup, pothole patching, culvert cleaning, bridge washing and rail-trail upkeep, are scheduled or expanded only when winter spending leaves additional funds.

Pannell listed routine maintenance activities the agency tracks and performs: repairing broken guardrail, mowing clear zones (one pass on secondary roads and roughly a 14-foot swath on interstates), targeted pollinator-friendly mowing practices (crews avoid areas of milkweed), litter pickup once snow melts, pothole patching, culvert maintenance and large-scale bridge preservation work. “Our bridges are our single most expensive asset,” he said, adding that the agency washes about 50% of bridges each year — including underneath piers and abutments — and applies protective treatments.

He also described the agency’s recent addition of rail-trail maintenance to its responsibilities and noted the higher public expectations for trail surfaces compared with highways; he cited national media attention to Vermont’s rail trail.

On budgeting, Pannell and committee members discussed how salt, equipment and personnel costs tied to winter response consume a large portion of the maintenance budget. He described the practical limits on reallocating winter funds: if the agency reduced snow-and-ice spending by $2 million without reducing staff, the main savings would be on salt, not on truck or personnel costs. That makes it difficult to shift winter allocations into other work until the winter season’s costs are known.

Pannell said district managers meet weekly with maintenance leadership and that districts prepare “shovel-ready” projects — culverts, ditching, tree contractors or mowing — that can be funded quickly if winter costs are lower than budgeted. He described an in-person budget planning meeting in Minden where districts were told to have projects ready but warned that ongoing heavy winter conditions made extra work unlikely in the near term.

The agency uses a long-standing maintenance tracking system (in place since 1999) that logs activity codes and staff hours. Pannell said the system tracks roughly 130 activity codes and can report detailed totals such as training hours; he told the committee the system recorded about 32,921 training hours last year. He also said the system produces federally acceptable billing for disaster reimbursements, using standard equipment-hour rates.

On equipment, Pannell said that for the first time the FY2026 proposed budget includes a line item for replacement maintenance equipment that historically came from the central garage. He gave examples of needed replacements ranging from skid steers and rollers to small patching equipment and air compressors used by bridge crews.

Committee members asked about staffing and hours. Pannell said the agency strives for 12-hour shifts in storms, extends to 16 hours when necessary, and relies on emergency exemptions for continuous operations during declared emergencies. He said the agency averages roughly 1.15 drivers per truck across garages, which affects overnight coverage and staffing decisions.

The presentation prompted questions from representatives about litter enforcement, vegetation choices to limit tree growth behind guardrail, district-level decision-making and overtime. Pannell and Deputy Director Ashley Atkins described how those topics are handled at the district level and in weekly coordination meetings; no formal votes or policy changes were taken during the session.

The committee did not take formal action; members were asked to keep districts’ shovel-ready lists updated so projects can proceed should winter spending permit.

Information discussed will inform the department’s FY2026 budget deliberations and future committee briefings.