Vermont Boosts Spending on Roads

Signing the transportation funding bill in #Waterbury #vt pic.twitter.com/JjaK5Uhm0O — Peter Shumlin (@GovPeterShumlin) June 2, 2016

Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin didn’t do the usual thing when it came to signing his state’s transportation budget June 2. Instead of a ceremony inside the state Capitol in Montpelier, Shumlin turned the $612.5 million bill passed by the Legislature into law at a construction site on Interstate 89.

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According to Vermont’s Department of Transportation, the percentage of the state’s bridges in “very poor” condition has been halved to 16% from 32% in 2008. Another 140 bridges will be repaired or replaced under the 2017 budget. The budget also includes an 11% increase in funds for repaving Vermont’s roads, which were graded a C- in the American Society of Civil Engineers’ most recent report in 2013. The percentage of those roads rated very poor was reduced from 36% in 2008 to 15% in 2015.

"We sometimes don't look at the progress we're making," Shumlin said. "This matters."