Spanning the Winooski River, the 352-foot-long bridge is the only thoroughfare that directly connects the Queen and Onion cities.
"We will have to deliver this project quickly." "Let's be honest: Every day that we disrupt traffic on that bridge is critical when you have 25,000 cars a day going across it," Robert White, project delivery bureau director at VTrans, said. The technique is common elsewhere but has been used just twice in Vermont.įederal highway officials must approve a bridge design and budget within five years - in transportation planning, that's considered fast. Crews would build the new bridge beside the existing one and slide it into place when complete.
The two cities, which jointly own the bridge, and state government will chip in toward the total $31 million cost.Ĭlosing the bridge would of course create a traffic nightmare, so state officials are proposing a construction method that would reduce the impact on travelers. Thanks to new federal spending, there's now a plan to address the problems, and relatively soon.Įarlier this month, the Vermont Agency of Transportation won a $24.8 million federal grant to help rebuild the bridge with wider travel lanes and a dedicated pedestrian and bike path. The deficiencies of the Winooski River Bridge, one of the state's most heavily traveled spans, are well known. Pedestrians must pick their way across a crumbling sidewalk with little buffer from speeding traffic cyclists have no lane of their own. Squeezed into two narrow travel lanes in each direction, motorists are at risk of sideswipe crashes. Crossing the bridge that connects Burlington and Winooski isn't a pleasant experience for anyone.