Vermont Agency of Transportation

VTrans History

Twenty-five years ago, there were about 480,000 people living in Vermont and the Highway Department was primarily focused on building and maintaining roads. Today the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) serves a population of approximately 608,000 Vermonters who, along with visitors, combine to travel over 6.4 billion vehicle miles over the state's roads.

It was twenty-five years ago that the Legislature combined four separate departments -- Highway, Motor Vehicles, Aeronautics and Public Transit -- to form the Vermont Agency of Transportation.

At that time the state was well into the interstate construction era and the Agency mission was clear -- build and maintain roads. Today the Agency has an evolving mission, striving to become a truly intermodal agency, maintaining our existing infrastructure and developing an integrated transportation network that includes rail, air, public transit and bike/pedestrian systems designed to improve and enhance the movement of people and goods.

Today, Vermont has approximately 14,000 miles of roadway, 320 miles of Interstate, over 2,370 miles of toll-free state highways and 11,210 miles of municipal roads. There are also 747 miles of railroads and 451 of them are owned by the State of Vermont.

There are 16 public use airports and ten state-owned airports. Burlington International Airport was the forth busiest airport in New England, with 8 carriers handling approximately 900,000 passengers last year.