Chris Sargent began Wednesday’s meeting with a jeopardy-style question written on his presentation slides: “This unfortunate occurrence happens to large trucks on VT 108 every year,” it read.
The answer: “What is a ‘stuckage?’”
The issue has become so common it has its own term. Truck stuckages in the approximately 3.5 mile section of Route 108 between Stowe Mountain and Smugglers’ Notch Resorts has been an issue since as early as 1996, according to a timeline presented by Sargent at the meeting.
Sargent is the planning group manager of Dubois & King, an engineering consultant firm. The purpose of Wednesday’s meeting was to discuss the merits and challenges of current ideas to prevent stuckages and to hear additional ideas from the public. It’s one of the early steps in a months-long project – funded by the Agency of Transportation and managed by the Lamoille County Planning Commission with Dubois and King acting as consultants – to address an intractable problem.
“We are just at the investigation phase and we haven’t gotten to the point at all in this project where we know what we’re going to do or how we’re going to do it,” Sargent said at the meeting.
In an interview, Seth Jensen, deputy director of the Lamoille County Planning Commission, said this project is solely focused on deterring big trucks from using the Notch road, rather than adjusting the roadway to allow them to get through.
Members of the public were directed to a survey on the Lamoille County Planning Commission website where they can provide feedback on potential solutions on both sides of the Notch road and offer their own ideas.
Trucks longer than 40 feet and vehicles with trailers longer than 45 feet are prohibited from accessing the Notch road, according to VTrans. Despite routine police patrols, large signage and coordination with certain GPS companies to alter truckers’ routes, large trucks are still getting stuck — whether through obliviousness or noncompliance.
So far in 2022, there have been five reported stuckages — the same as in 2021, said Todd Sears, VTrans’ deputy bureau chief of operations and safety. Between 2009 and 2021, truck stuckages averaged 8.6 per year, according to a previous VTDigger podcast.
The main players in this project are the state Agency of Transportation, Lamoille County Planning Commission, the state Agency of Natural Resources and both Stowe Mountain and Smugglers’ Notch resorts, with Dubois and King as project consultants, according to the presentation.
“This is really about the gateways and approaches to the notch,” Jensen said. “There’s absolutely no plan to widen, or straighten, or remove ledger or boulders from within the notch.”
The two ‘“gateways” that project planners are looking at are, on the southern side, the Barne’s Camp at Stowe Mountain Resort, and on the northern side, Smugglers’ Notch resort, according to images presented on Wednesday.
Both areas have potential for large trucks to be able to turn around, and both resorts are willing partners in the project, “which is an excellent position to be in,” Sargent said.
In 2021, VTrans conducted a road safety audit report that “focused on identifying possible solutions to reduce or eliminate stuck trucks in the Notch,” according to the Lamoille County Planning Commission website.
Ideas under consideration include:
- Roundabout: would make it easier for large trucks to turn around, and harder for them to continue on by narrowing the road ahead so they cannot fit through.
- Overhead barrier: would keep out large trucks but has potential to block legal trucks, too.
- Manned gate: would require staffing, but could also provide an effective deterrent.
- Chicane: changing the direction of the road to force a large truck to be unable to navigate, yet still allowing a small truck to get through.
- Intelligent transportation systems: scanners that can identify a truck that is too large and alert existing signage to show a message to that truck to turn back.
Officials turned the meeting over to the public to offer their own thoughts, feedback and ideas to keep large trucks out. Among their suggestions:
- Increasing the fine for oversized trucks that enter the Notch. The current fine for a first offense starts at $1,000, according to VTrans.
- Placing two staggered boulders on the left and right side of the road that smaller vehicles can navigate between but large ones cannot. (This would effectively be a chicane, Sargent said).
- Adding visuals to signs to potentially have a greater effect than just words.
- An archway too low for large trucks longer than 40 feet to pass through, and an area for them to turn around.
Wednesday’s meeting marks an early point in the overall scoping study, according to the project timeline. There will be a presentation of alternatives in December or January, followed by the presentation of a final draft study in February or March before the project’s expected completion in March 2023.
Members of the public will have an opportunity to participate in the two remaining meetings, according to the Smugglers Notch Truck Scoping website.
Sargent suggested that there likely will not be a single solution to this problem, but that multiple solutions will keep the wrong trucks out and the right vehicles in.
As for the public’s input, “we’re already seeing a lot of suggestions that are consistent with what we’re thinking, so that’s great,” he said.