WILLISTON — Gov. Peter Shumlin announced an infrastructure improvement plan designed to improve pedestrian and automobile traffic flow across Chittenden County. The plan is billed as an alternative to the four-lane Circumferential Highway, a project effectively killed by the governor in 2011.
The so-called Circ Alternative, a three-phase plan to make 34 infrastructure investments in Williston, Essex and Colchester, is a replacement for a plan conceived more than 30 years ago. In 2011, Shumlin said he would not “dig a hole to nowhere,” calling an end to the proposed highway after considering a redesign.
“I think it was clear to all reasonable people, it was never going to be built,” Shumlin said during a news conference Tuesday at Williston Town Hall.
The smaller projects are expected to cost about $100 million, half the cost projected to finish the 16-mile Circ. (The state completed 3 miles of the original highway project (Vermont 289) and has spent a total of about $97 million, according to the Agency of Transportation.)
According to Michele Boomhower, assistant and metropolitan planning organization director for the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission, the infrastructure investments will include but are not limited to:
• 7 miles of improved shoulders for cyclists
• 26 new intersections
• two interstate exit improvements in Colchester (Phase I) and Williston (Phase III)
• new and expanded transit services
• 120 new park-and-ride spaces
• 42,000 feet of shared-use pathways and sidewalks.
Included in the plans are efforts to ease congestion at Essex Junction’s notorious Five Corners intersection. Details of the proposed projects can be found on the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission’s Web page.
Agency of Transportation Secretary Brian Searles said Vermonters’ transportation habits are changing. He said it no longer makes sense to invest in high-capacity highways. Instead, he said the state should improve current infrastructure, such as widening shoulders for cyclists, and invest in public transportation.
The first two phases of the plan are included in VTrans Capital Program and have been approved by the Legislature, Searles said. The challenges going forward will be permitting, funding and right-of-way complications, he said.
Though the investments are separated into three phases, the order of implementation is uncertain, he said.
“Funding is the real important factor,” Searles said. “Some will be done ahead of schedule, some will be held up.”
Brian Shupe, executive director of the Vermont Natural Resources Council, supports the alternative project. He said this plan reflects a new era of transportation in the state.
Shupe said oversized highway projects designed to move large amounts of traffic should be replaced by strategic investments that encourage downtown development and reduce urban sprawl.
