Vermont construction and materials bureau outlines testing, recycled materials and digital record upgrades

MONTPELIER, Jan. 16 — Mohan Chugagulich, director of the Construction and Materials Bureau, told the House Transportation Committee the bureau’s work centers on construction oversight and materials testing after contracts are awarded.

“The majority of the work what we do is providing the oversight during the construction,” Chugagulich said, adding the bureau also operates a materials certification unit, a geotechnical section and an e‑Construction unit that manages software and data collection.

The bureau said it administers roughly 50 to 80 construction contracts per year and manages annual contractor payments on the order of hundreds of millions of dollars. Doug Bono, the state construction engineer, said many of those projects include federal participation and therefore must meet federal standards and related program conditions.

Why it matters: the bureau enforces contract requirements and tests materials that become part of state road and bridge projects. Its decisions affect contractor payments, the quality of pavements and bridges, and how recycled and alternative materials are validated for use on state projects.

Construction oversight and staffing

Chugagulich and Bono described the bureau’s field role: verifying contractors follow contract specifications, monitoring contractor safety programs and checking compliance with environmental and civil-rights requirements tied to federal funding. Bono said the bureau has about 70 full-time construction staff and supplements that with seasonal consultants; he described a typical season bringing on “something between 80 and 100 consultants” to help with inspection and document control.

Materials testing and local suppliers

The bureau said Vermont and nearby states supply most project materials. Chugagulich gave inventory figures for suppliers who serve VTrans projects: about 20 asphalt plants, 17 ready-mix concrete plants and five precast concrete plants in Vermont and neighboring states. He said the agency maintains one AASHTO-accredited laboratory in Berlin that performs testing for critical materials and that many material sources are approved after sampling and testing.

Recycled and alternative materials

Bureau staff described an expanding use of recycled asphalt and other reclaimed materials. "We are pushing about 40, 50%" use of reclaimed mixes in some applications compared with single-digit use when the practice began several years ago, Chugagulich said. He also described field use of foam-glass aggregate on weak soils and said the product has been applied on projects such as work on I‑89 approaches where lighter aggregate is needed to avoid settlement.

On glass in pavements, staff said the material is used in contained locations or under layers that keep shards away from the traveling public. "We try to prevent... traveling public, you know, to the glass that you go with the bike," Chugagulich said; he added that glass aggregate is placed beneath surface layers so it is not exposed.

Geotechnical and emergency work

The geotechnical unit performs subsurface borings and foundation recommendations and has been active year-round responding to slides, rockfall and other weather-driven problems. Chugagulich described geotechnical crews and consultants responding to unpredictable failures and designing foundations, piles and other fixes to stabilize structures.

Digital recordkeeping and e‑Construction

Chugagulich said the bureau is deploying a new construction management system (CMS) that will centralize bidding, material certification and project records. The system will allow contractors and subcontractors to submit materials data and will enable e‑ticketing for hot‑mix deliveries so staff can see in real time which truck is bound for a project and the load weight. "From, let's say like 10 days, we are down to 3 days reviewing some stuff," he said of the improved turnaround for submittals. The bureau also described plans to pilot contracting with 3‑D modeling on an upcoming project, and to continue expanding mobile data collection for field crews.

Questions from lawmakers focused on standards and plant inspections, vendor counts and whether federal participation increases project cost. Bono said material quality and testing standards are largely aligned with federal requirements and that federal participation affects project development procedures (for example, NEPA and right-of-way processes) more than routine construction testing.

Ending

Chugagulich invited committee members to visit the Berlin testing lab and said seasonal hiring and engagement with industry meetings help the bureau maintain inspection capacity. The presentation closed with the committee moving on to subsequent agenda items.