The state of Vermont is months into an overhaul of the I-89 exit 16 intersection in Colchester, which they say will help relieve congestion. But for now, the ongoing construction is hurting local businesses in the area. “You can see the car count’s way down, there’s not as many cars because they are avoiding it, but my business is down 10-20 percent,” said Mike Leblanc, owner of Vermont Bagel Company. The Vermont Department of Transportation says while this may not be ideal, the project has been in the making for years. “We’ve been promoting this project for years, we’ve had many public meetings about this project. Folks have known that this is coming, and we’ve never sugarcoated how severe the impacts are going to be,” said Michael Lacroix, the project manager for Vtrans. The department said the project is on schedule to be completed by the summer of 2026, and phase 1 is now halfway complete, which should help relieve some of the daytime construction. “We’ve just completed our blasting operations for this year and a lot of the work is transitioning to nighttime work. Folks should still expect to see crews working during the daytime, but the majority of the heavy lifting for the rest of the first phase is going to be done at night,” Lacroix said.The department is asking residents to please remain patient and that the diverging diamond shape is going to immensely reduce traffic congestion once complete. “It essentially eliminates the signalized left turn movement and those vehicles can now take left-hand turns unsignalized,” Lacroix said.However, not everyone is sold on the idea. “Just with a traffic circle, it seems like people have a hard time figuring that out, and this is something completely new that they’ve never even seen before. I’m pretty skeptical of it,” Leblanc said. VTRANS also says in between phase 1 and 2 there will be a complete stop to constructionfor a few months and that is expected to be from winter of this year to fall of 2024. You can find the full renderings of what the completed project will look like here.
The state of Vermont is months into an overhaul of the I-89 exit 16 intersection in Colchester, which they say will help relieve congestion.
But for now, the ongoing construction is hurting local businesses in the area.
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“You can see the car count’s way down, there’s not as many cars because they are avoiding it, but my business is down 10-20 percent,” said Mike Leblanc, owner of Vermont Bagel Company.
The Vermont Department of Transportation says while this may not be ideal, the project has been in the making for years.
“We’ve been promoting this project for years, we’ve had many public meetings about this project. Folks have known that this is coming, and we’ve never sugarcoated how severe the impacts are going to be,” said Michael Lacroix, the project manager for Vtrans.
The department said the project is on schedule to be completed by the summer of 2026, and phase 1 is now halfway complete, which should help relieve some of the daytime construction.
“We’ve just completed our blasting operations for this year and a lot of the work is transitioning to nighttime work. Folks should still expect to see crews working during the daytime, but the majority of the heavy lifting for the rest of the first phase is going to be done at night,” Lacroix said.
The department is asking residents to please remain patient and that the diverging diamond shape is going to immensely reduce traffic congestion once complete.
“It essentially eliminates the signalized left turn movement and those vehicles can now take left-hand turns unsignalized,” Lacroix said.
However, not everyone is sold on the idea.
“Just with a traffic circle, it seems like people have a hard time figuring that out, and this is something completely new that they’ve never even seen before. I’m pretty skeptical of it,” Leblanc said.
VTRANS also says in between phase 1 and 2 there will be a complete stop to construction
for a few months and that is expected to be from winter of this year to fall of 2024.
You can find the full renderings of what the completed project will look like here.
