§ 10g. Annual report; Transportation Program; advancements, cancellations, and delays
(a) Proposed Transportation Program. The Agency of Transportation shall annually present to the General Assembly for adoption
a multiyear Transportation Program covering the same number of years as the Statewide
Transportation Improvement Program (STIP), consisting of the recommended budget for
all Agency activities for the ensuing fiscal year and projected spending levels for
all Agency activities for the following fiscal years. The Program shall include a
description and year-by-year breakdown of recommended and projected funding of all
projects proposed to be funded within the time period of the STIP and, in addition,
a description of all projects that are not recommended for funding in the first fiscal
year of the proposed Program but that are scheduled for construction during the time
period covered by the STIP. The Program shall be consistent with the planning process
established by 1988 Acts and Resolves No. 200, as codified in 3 V.S.A. chapter 67 and 24 V.S.A. chapter 117, the statements of policy set forth in sections 10b-10f of this title, and the long-range systems plan, corridor studies, and project priorities developed
through the capital planning process under section 10i of this title.
(b) Projected spending. Projected spending in future fiscal years shall be based on revenue estimates as follows:
(1) with respect to State funds, on the consensus forecast for Transportation Fund revenue
adopted pursuant to 32 V.S.A. § 305a and for later years on other consensus or Executive Branch estimates of Transportation
Fund revenues; and
(2) with respect to federal funds, on such federal regulations that apply to the development
of the STIP.
(c) Systemwide performance measures. The Program proposed by the Agency shall include systemwide performance measures developed
by the Agency to describe the condition of the Vermont transportation network. The
Program shall discuss the background and utility of the performance measures, track
the performance measures over time, and, where appropriate, recommend the setting
of targets for the performance measures.
(d) [Repealed.]
(e) Prior expenditures and appropriations carried forward.
(1) The Agency’s annual Transportation Program shall include a separate report summarizing
with respect to the most recently ended fiscal year:
(A) all expenditures of funds by source; and
(B) all unexpended appropriations of transportation funds and TIB funds that have been
carried forward from the previous fiscal year to the ensuing fiscal year.
(2) The summary shall identify expenditures and carry forwards for each program category
included in the proposed annual Transportation Program as adopted for the closed fiscal
year in question and such other information as the Agency deems appropriate.
(f) Adopted Transportation Program. Each year following adoption of a Transportation Program under this section, the
Agency shall prepare and make available to the public the Transportation Program adopted
by the General Assembly. The resulting document shall be entered in the permanent
records of the Agency and shall constitute the State’s official Transportation Program.
(g) Project updates. The Agency’s annual proposed Transportation Program shall include project updates
referencing this section and listing the following:
(1) all proposed projects in the Program that would be new to the State Transportation
Program;
(2) all projects for which total estimated costs have increased by more than $5,000,000.00
from the estimate in the adopted Transportation Program for the prior fiscal year
or by more than 75 percent from the estimate in the adopted Transportation Program
for the prior fiscal year;
(3) all projects for which the total estimated costs have, for the first time, increased
by more than $10,000,000.00 from the Preliminary Plan estimate or by more than 100
percent from the Preliminary Plan estimate; and
(4) all projects funded for construction in the prior fiscal year’s adopted Transportation
Program that are no longer funded in the proposed Transportation Program submitted
to the General Assembly, the projected costs for such projects in the prior fiscal
year’s adopted Transportation Program, and the total costs incurred over the life
of each such project.
(h) Project delays; emergency and safety issues; additional funding; cancellations.
(1) If capital projects in the Transportation Program are delayed because of unanticipated
problems with permitting, right-of-way acquisition, construction, local concern, or
availability of federal or State funds, the Secretary is authorized to advance other
projects in the adopted Transportation Program for the current fiscal year.
(2) The Secretary is further authorized to undertake projects to resolve emergency or
safety issues that are not included in the adopted Transportation Program for the
current fiscal year. Upon authorizing a project to resolve an emergency or safety
issue, the Secretary shall give prompt notice of the decision and action taken to
the Joint Fiscal Office and to the House and Senate Committees on Transportation when
the General Assembly is in session and to the Joint Transportation Oversight Committee,
the Joint Fiscal Office, and the Joint Fiscal Committee when the General Assembly
is not in session.
(3) If a project in the adopted Transportation Program for the current fiscal year requires
additional funding to maintain the schedule in the adopted Transportation Program
for the current fiscal year, the Agency is authorized to allocate the necessary resources.
However, the Secretary shall not delay or suspend work on projects in the adopted
Transportation Program for the current fiscal year to reallocate funding for other
projects except when other funding options are not available. In such case, the Secretary
shall notify the Joint Transportation Oversight Committee, the Joint Fiscal Office,
and the Joint Fiscal Committee when the General Assembly is not in session and the
House and Senate Committees on Transportation and the Joint Fiscal Office when the
General Assembly is in session. With respect to projects in the approved Transportation
Program, the Secretary shall notify the regional planning commission for the district
where the affected project is located, the municipality where the affected project
is located, the legislators for the district where the affected project is located,
the House and Senate Committees on Transportation, and the Joint Fiscal Office of
any change that likely will affect the fiscal year in which the project is planned
to go to construction.
(4) No project shall be canceled without the approval of the General Assembly, except
that the Agency may cancel a municipal project upon the request or concurrence of
the municipality, provided that notice of the cancellation is included in the Agency’s
annual proposed Transportation Program.
(i) Economic development proposals. For the purpose of enabling the State, without delay, to take advantage of economic
development proposals that increase jobs for Vermonters, a transportation project
certified by the Governor as essential to the economic infrastructure of the State
economy, or a local economy, may, if approval is required by law, be approved for
construction by a committee comprising the Joint Fiscal Committee meeting with the
chairs of the House and Senate Committees on Transportation or their designees without
explicit project authorization through an adopted Transportation Program.
(j) Plan for advancing projects. The Agency of Transportation, in coordination with the Agency of Natural Resources
and the Division for Historic Preservation, shall prepare and implement a plan for
advancing projects contained in the adopted Transportation Program for the current
fiscal year. The plan shall include the assignment of a project manager from the Agency
of Transportation for each project. The Agency of Transportation, the Agency of Natural
Resources, and the Division for Historic Preservation shall set forth provisions for
expediting the permitting process and establishing a means for evaluating each project
during concept design planning if more than one agency is involved to determine whether
it should be advanced or deleted from the Program.
(k) Definition. As used in subsection (h) of this section, “emergency or safety issues” means:
(1) serious damage to a transportation facility caused by a natural disaster over a wide
area, such as a flood, hurricane, earthquake, severe storm, or landslide;
(2) catastrophic or imminent catastrophic failure of a transportation facility from any
cause;
(3) any condition identified by the Secretary as hazardous to the traveling public; or
(4) any condition evidenced by fatalities or a high incidence of crashes.
(l) Numerical grading system; priority rating. The Agency shall develop a numerical grading system to assign a priority rating to
all Program Development Paving, Program Development Roadway, Program Development Safety
and Traffic Operations, Program Development State and Interstate Bridge, Town Highway
Bridge, and Bridge Maintenance projects. The rating system shall consist of two separate,
additive components as follows:
(1) One component shall be limited to asset management- and performance-based factors
that are objective and quantifiable and shall consider the following:
(A) the existing safety conditions in the project area and the impact of the project on
improving safety conditions;
(B) the average, seasonal, peak, and nonpeak volume of traffic in the project area, including
the proportion of traffic volume relative to total volume in the region, and the impact
of the project on congestion and mobility conditions in the region;
(C) the availability, accessibility, and usability of alternative routes;
(D) the impact of the project on future maintenance and reconstruction costs;
(E) the relative priority assigned to the project by the relevant regional planning commission;
and
(F) the resilience of the transportation infrastructure to floods and other extreme weather
events.
(2) The second component of the priority rating system shall consider the following factors:
(A) the importance of the transportation infrastructure as a factor in the local, regional,
or State economy; and
(B) the importance of the transportation infrastructure in the health, social, and cultural
life of the surrounding communities.
(3) The priority rating system for Program Development Roadway projects shall award as
bonus points an amount equal to 10 percent of the total base possible rating points
to projects within a designated downtown development district established pursuant
to 24 V.S.A. § 2793.
(m) Inclusion of priority rating. The annual proposed Transportation Program shall include an individual priority rating
pursuant to subsection (l) of this section for each highway paving, roadway, safety and traffic operations,
and bridge project in the Program along with a description of the system and methodology
used to assign the ratings.
(n) Development and evaluation projects; delays. The Agency’s annual proposed Transportation Program shall include a project-by-project
description in each program of all proposed spending of funds for the development
and evaluation of projects. These funds shall be reserved to the identified projects
subject to the discretion of the Secretary to reallocate funds to other projects within
the program when it is determined that the scheduled expenditure of the identified
funds will be delayed due to permitting, local decision making, the availability of
federal or State funds, or other unanticipated problems.
(o) Year of first inclusion. For projects initially included in a Transportation Program adopted after January
1, 2006, the Agency’s proposed Transportation Program prepared pursuant to subsection
(a) of this section and the adopted Transportation Program prepared pursuant to subsection
(f) of this section shall include the year in which the projects were first included
in an adopted Transportation Program.
(p) Lamoille Valley Rail Trail. The Agency shall include the annual maintenance required for the Lamoille Valley
Rail Trail (LVRT), running from Swanton to St. Johnsbury, in the Transportation Program
it presents to the General Assembly under subsection (a) of this section. The proposed
authorization for the maintenance of the LVRT shall be sufficient to cover:
(1) maintenance and repair or replacement of any bridges along the LVRT;
(2) maintenance and repair of the fencing along the LVRT and any leased lines;
(3) maintenance and repair of the stormwater systems for the LVRT;
(4) any large-scale surface maintenance required due to dangerous conditions along the
LVRT or compromise of the rail bed of the LVRT, or both;
(5) resolution of any unauthorized encroachments related to the rail bed, but not the
recreational use of the LVRT; and
(6) any other maintenance obligations required of the Agency under a memorandum of understanding
entered into regarding the maintenance of the LVRT. (Added 1989, No. 121, § 6, eff. June 22, 1989; amended 1989, No. 246 (Adj. Sess.), § 38; 1991, No. 175 (Adj. Sess.), § 25b, eff. May 15, 1992; 1993, No. 89, § 22; 1993, No. 89, § 22; 1993, No. 172 (Adj. Sess.), § 16; 1995, No. 60, § 20, eff. April 25, 1995; 1995, No. 183 (Adj. Sess.), § 17, eff. May 22, 1996; 1997, No. 144 (Adj. Sess.), § 12a, eff. April 27, 1998; 2001, No. 64, § 9, eff. June 16, 2001; 2003, No. 160 (Adj. Sess.), § 30, eff. June 9, 2004; 2005, No. 80, §§ 53, 60; 2005, No. 175 (Adj. Sess.), §§ 46, 47; 2007, No. 75, §§ 35(a), 38; 2007, No. 164 (Adj. Sess.), §§ 61, 62; 2009, No. 123 (Adj. Sess.), § 22; 2011, No. 62, § 36, eff. Jan. 1, 2012; 2011, No. 153 (Adj. Sess.), § 29; 2015, No. 11, § 25; 2015, No. 158 (Adj. Sess.), §§ 18, 20, 21; 2017, No. 38, § 13; 2019, No. 59, § 9; 2021, No. 55, § 13; 2021, No. 105 (Adj. Sess.), § 349, eff. July 1, 2022; 2023, No. 148 (Adj. Sess.), § 12, eff. July 1, 2024.)