Montpelier, Vermont -- September 21, 2011
The more we learn about the damage from Irene, the more staggering are the figures.
State officials now estimate the damage to roads, bridges and other infrastructure in Vermont will exceed $1 billion. Much of that damage is in towns where 1,950 roads, 200 bridges and 900 culverts need repairs. The state is rushing emergency funds to towns to pay for the work, while they await federal disaster aid.
Meanwhile, transportation officials report more progress on repairing state infrastructure. There were 180 separate closures of state roads and bridges following Irene, today that is down to 13. But there still is a long way to go to get the system fully repaired.
"If you do the math on these numbers, you would conclude - wrongly - that we are over 90 percent there," Searles says. "The fact is that on most of these roads that are open at some level of service we have ongoing construction projects. Remember the goal is two lane travel, passable and maintainable all winter and to that level we're about 70 percent there."
Searles says those numbers are changing daily as inspectors are able to check bridges. A number of locations are awaiting temporary bridges, which can cost upwards of half a million and are complex to install.
WCAX News
