Vermont Corridor Management Planning Program

What is Corridor Management Planning?

Corridor Management Plans represents a markedly new approach to planning in Vermont.  These Plans have the objective of balancing ideas for transportation improvements, with anticipated land use and development challenges.

The approach was developed by the VTrans in collaboration with the regional planning commissions throughout the state, the Chittenden County Metropolitan Planning Organization and the state Agency of Commerce and Community Development.  In July, 2005 their ideas were incorporated into the Vermont Corridor Management Handbook, a technical resource for state, regional and local planners and consultants undertaking these studies. 

Why use Corridor Management Approach?

There is a growing realization within transportation agencies that we can not build ourselves out of congestion.  New facilities and major capacity improvements to our roadways are becoming increasingly difficult due to financial constraints, environmental and community challenges as well as jurisdictional issues that affect transportation problems and solutions.  Due to these and other challenges, more creative and collaborative approaches to solving and preventing trans­portation problems are needed. 

The new planning process is designed to bring together as many interested parties as possible – at a minimum local businesses and governments, transportation service providers, the regional planning agency or agencies, and VTrans - to study transportation needs and land use dynamics in a defined segment of a transportation corridor.  The participants identify mutually acceptable transportation and land use strategies for the segment – ideally before problems become critical. Some of these strategies may be pursued immediately; others may need to wait for an appropriate or opportune time. The critical ingredient for success is a shared commitment to take responsibility for seeing that strategies in the plan are implemented. A successful corridor management plan is one that is useful to all participants as a “blueprint” for future actions and decisions.

The corridor management approach offers the opportunity for state and regional agencies, municipalities and commu­nities to collectively plot a future strategy for a corridor.  This approach makes the best possible use of available resources, takes advantage of synergies to produce the best out­comes, and has a greater chance of becoming a reality – than would otherwise be the case if each community acted on its own.  It also helps to alleviate adversarial situations with communities when projects move from the planning to implementation stage.

U.S. 4 Corridor Management Plan (Hartford) pdf 8 MB

VT 103 Corridor Management Plan (Chester and Rockingham) pdf 8MB

U.S. 7 Corridor Management Plan (Rutland Town and Clarendon) pdf 8MB