Essex, Vermont is taking the first concrete step toward building a shared-use path along one of its busiest and least pedestrian-friendly roads, using a $222,574 federal grant to fund design work on Upper Main Street.
The planned path would run along VT Route 15 between Orleans Road and the VT Route 289 interchange, a stretch of suburban commercial corridor that carries roughly 10,000 to 15,000 vehicles a day but offers little safe passage for anyone on foot or a bike. Strip malls, office parks, and residential neighborhoods line the road, which connects Essex to Burlington about eight miles to the west.
The federal money, awarded through the Surface Transportation Block Grant Program, covers preliminary engineering: surveys, design, and environmental review. That work needs to happen before any construction can begin, meaning this is the early phase of what will likely be a multi-year, multi-phase project. Assuming the standard 80/20 federal-to-local match, total design costs would run around $278,000.
The push to retrofit this corridor reflects a tension familiar to fast-growing Vermont suburbs. Essex has roughly 22,000 residents across Essex Town and Essex Junction, which split into two separate municipalities in 2022, and traffic on Route 15 has grown alongside years of residential development. The town's own planning documents have flagged the absence of safe bike and pedestrian facilities along VT15 as a gap. Vermont's climate law, the 2020 Global Warming Solutions Act, adds urgency to projects that might reduce how much people need to drive.
Similar efforts to close bike and pedestrian gaps in fast-growing communities have played out elsewhere, including Loudoun County, Virginia, which received $4.3 million to build walking and biking connections to Metro and New Braunfels, Texas, which has been building out sidewalks and bike paths to keep pace with its growth.
How long the design phase takes will determine when Essex could seek construction funding and move toward breaking ground. Until that happens, the Route 15 corridor remains one of the more notable gaps in a regional network that Chittenden County planners have long identified as a priority.
