AOT breaks down bike‑ped, stormwater and road grants; officials cite funding variability

Joel Perico, municipal assistance program manager at the Vermont Agency of Transportation, told the Senate Transportation committee on an unspecified date that the agency has seen steady interest in its bike‑and‑pedestrian, scoping, municipal stormwater and Better Roads programs but that annual award totals vary with available formula and federal funding.

Perico said the bike‑ped (BIPED) solicitation is annual and typically announced in spring, with awards in late summer. Large‑scale grants fund design and construction, a separate pool covers additional funding for existing grants, and the agency generally funds scoping applications. “We try to fund all of our scoping applications,” Perico said, adding that scoping produces a preferred alternative — a conceptual layout and estimate that strengthens later design and construction applications.

Why it matters: the allocation and timing of these grants affect whether towns can move short sidewalk or culvert projects from concept to construction, and whether municipalities must reapply in later rounds if projects are not selected.

Perico told senators that BIPED awards are competitive because the bike‑ped dollars are not a statutory set‑aside but come from formula funding used across bridges, paving and other priorities. He described recent annual award targets in the “$4 million to $5 million” range while noting that project spending in any year can be higher because awards roll over as projects advance. “BIPED funding is not it’s not a set aside,” Perico said.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) produced a one‑time increase in Transportation Alternatives (TA) set‑aside amounts in fiscal year 2023, Perico said. That raised the TA set‑aside to roughly $4.3 million going forward and produced a catch‑up award year that resulted in about $8.8 million awarded in fiscal year 2024; Perico said some of that total reflected reawarded money from projects that cancelled and money carried forward from the prior year’s rollout timetable.

Perico also described how the TA solicitation and the municipal highway stormwater mitigation program overlap under TA’s environmental‑mitigation category. He said $1,508,880 of municipal stormwater funding was included in the $8.8 million TA awards in fiscal year 2024. For state small‑scale grants the agency funds roughly a 50 percent share intended for short, non‑engineered gap projects.

On water‑quality and road erosion work, Perico said clean‑water funds and Better Roads funds have been directed to municipal roads general permit (MRGP) activities and to culvert and stream‑related projects. He described a formula used for road‑erosion inventories that assumes an average segment length of 328 linear feet and an estimated average cost of about $6,000 per segment to bring it to MRGP standards. That formula determined initial offers to municipalities in a non‑competitive, formula pool.

Perico said award lists and specific town projects are posted on AOT’s website and that the agency routinely meets with towns to explain where applications fell short and how to reapply. He recommended scoping as a low‑barrier first step — a relatively simple application and a consultant‑led effort that improves project readiness.

Perico and senators asked and answered multiple procedural questions about how awards relate to available federal and state funds, how IIJA funds were appropriated across years, and whether projects not awarded in a round typically reapply (Perico said many do). He also described Better Roads as combining transportation and clean‑water funding streams and noted that the agency will continue to flex available funds where statute and program rules allow.

Less critical details: Perico said historic timing and statutory award windows (January–March) shaped some years’ outcomes, and that some programs briefly saw no awards during the COVID year. He said the agency posts award histories online for public review.