Vermont Agency of Transportation walks lawmakers through public project maps, 511, bids and emergency response

Jeremy Reed, chief engineer with the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans), spent a committee meeting Feb. 12 demonstrating the agency’s public-facing tools and explaining how residents and lawmakers can find project information, contact project staff and follow bids and contract results.

“The 511 has all the road closures, road conditions, traffic… and then the plow finder, middle of the storm, you can click on the plow finder, and it will tell you where each plow is and essentially how long it's been since they've been on on your travel route,” Reed said as he walked committee members through the VTrans landing pages and interactive maps.

The presentation showed several public resources. Reed highlighted the 511 service for closures and plow activity, a project map that displays projects with construction funding programmed for the next three years, and a fact-sheet view for individual projects that lists scope, schedules and project manager contact details. He said larger construction efforts often post a separate project website and that projects in construction usually list a public information officer to handle public inquiries.

Why it matters: committee members said constituents often ask how to influence the scope of forthcoming work—such as upsizing culverts ahead of paving, adding bike lanes, or requesting guardrail or ditching changes—and they want a clear path for inquiries. Reed said the project fact sheets list VTrans contacts; if a project is not yet listed, he recommended working first through a town or regional planning commission (RPC) so a local or regional body can elevate the issue to VTrans’ asset management team.

Reed described how the project map is intentionally limited to projects with programmed construction funds for the next three years. He used a Brattleboro paving entry as an example, noting that a listed project may show “class 1 paving expected, May of 2025” and provide contact information for the project manager. He cautioned that some planned maintenance or pre-paving work — such as culvert replacements — can appear separately as maintenance projects before a final paving project is shown.

On emergency work, Reed said immediate post-storm conditions (bridge washouts, closed roads) appear on 511, but standing up a permanent repair project requires programing through federal-aid processes and takes additional time. He described one recent response in which VTrans’ role was debris removal on a town road and the town handled follow-on reconstruction because the road was locally owned.

Committee members also reviewed VTrans performance and asset-management tools. Reed demonstrated a pavement-condition dashboard that reports a travel-weighted average score (target 70) and said the agency aims to keep the percent of miles in very poor condition below 25 percent. He explained VTrans contracts data collection to a consultant that runs instrumentation over the road network and that the agency uses a planning model called BAMIS, which runs thousands of iterations to optimize treatment selection for a given budget.

On funding and production, Reed said VTrans currently budgets about $100 million for paving and related programs; he contrasted that with a few years earlier, when the program was roughly $140 million and produced many more lane miles. When asked how many paving projects the agency plans this year, he replied, “20.” Reed also gave ballpark treatment costs per mile: a thin overlay might cost about $300,000–$400,000 per mile; a thicker mill-and-fill about $600,000–$700,000; and full reconstruction up to about $1 million per mile, depending on the scope.

The committee asked about bids and contractor selection. Reed said most project procurement follows Federal Highway Administration rules: firms must be prequalified and bonded, and contracts are generally awarded to the low bidder unless a bid is judged unbalanced or otherwise deficient. VTrans maintains contractor performance evaluations and will escalate or take action for serious payment or safety violations; the agency sometimes rejects all bids if plans are flawed, capacity is insufficient, or budget constraints make proceeding infeasible.

Representative Keaton asked whether gravel and sediment accumulations in major river channels — which can alter hydraulics and contribute to flooding — are addressed by VTrans. Reed said VTrans evaluates hydraulic openings and sediment transport, and in some locations works with the Agency of Natural Resources and geomorphologists to create pilot channels, reestablish main channels, or remove debris after major storms. He said routine alluvial fan sedimentation is typically handled by designing for room to accept sediment rather than removing it wholesale, while post‑storm deposits may require coordinated removal.

Reed also pointed committee members to other public data on VTrans’ site, including bridge inspection reports, town highway maps, crash totals and an archive of bid results dating back to 2008. He encouraged lawmakers and constituents to contact RPCs or district maintenance offices as a first step on local road issues and said VTrans’ project pages and listed contacts are intended to be the public entry point for questions about schedule, scope and impacts.

The presentation was delivered as an open Q&A; committee members used the session to ask how to route constituent concerns, understand project timelines and prioritize local requests amid constrained budgets.

Looking ahead, Reed and the committee discussed resource limits for expanding data collection to town roads and how having that data could raise questions about state assistance or changes to funding formulas. Reed said such expansions are possible but would depend on available resources and policy decisions about how the data would be used.