By Sam Douglass
After sixty-one years, city, state, and federal officials gathered Monday morning in Burlington to celebrate the opening of the final section of the Champlain Parkway, marking the completion of one of the longest-running and most divisive transportation projects in Vermont history. The 2.8-mile, $84 million, parkway opens new traffic access from Interstate 189 into Burlington’s South End, with the goal to ease congestion while shifting traffic onto Pine Street and bringing visitors into the city’s commercial district near the Farmer’s Market and Church Street.
At a press conference held at the road’s intersection with Home Avenue, speakers emphasized the project’s lengthy timeline. The ceremony was attended by US Sen. Peter Welch, Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak, former Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger, and Burlington City Council President Ben Traverse.
First proposed in 1965, the Champlain Parkway, originally called “the Burlington Belt-line,” was envisioned as a four-lane north–south connector between Interstate 189 and downtown Burlington.
While often seen as a city initiative, the project was continuously shaped by state and federal oversight and was only formally taken over by the City of Burlington in 1998. Since then, the Federal Highway Administration has contributed the majority of funding under a cost-sharing structure that ultimately covered roughly 95% of project expenses, with the state contributing about 3% and the city covering about 2% in matching funds.
Over time, the project evolved from a larger four-lane highway into a scaled-down two-lane parkway with added pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure, stormwater improvements, and traffic calming features.
Construction on early segments began in the 1980s, but the project stalled after environmental contamination from a former coal tar plant near the Pine Street Barge Canal was discovered and later designated as part of a federal Superfund cleanup area.
The southern extension was left incomplete for decades, ending abruptly at Home Avenue and earning the nickname, “the road to nowhere.” Overgrown with weeds, the unfinished corridor was used as a skate park while plans for further construction were in the air.
A new plan eventually extended the roadway to Lakeside Avenue and reconfigured the project as a two-lane parkway with trees and medians, rather than a full highway. The first completed segment between Home Avenue and Lakeside Avenue opened in 2024.
The parkway is expected to reduce traffic on Shelburne Road by 10 to 20 percent. The Department of Public Works also plans to monitor traffic impacts over the coming years and make adjustments if needed.
In addition to the gains made through traffic reduction, the project includes multiple infrastructure upgrades for the city: improved pedestrian crossings and shared-use paths, renewed water and sewer lines, underground utilities, rail crossing upgrades, and new stormwater infrastructure designed to reduce sediments from entering Lake Champlain.
Despite its completion and the purported benefits it brings to the area, the project has not been without controversy and division in the community.
Neighborhood residents, particularly in the Maple and King Street areas, raised concerns that the project would increase traffic in lower-income neighborhoods and undermine long-term efforts to prioritize transit, walking, and cycling in a city known for its environmental commitments. Opponents also argued that the project reflected outdated transportation planning priorities and questioned whether it aligned with Burlington’s sustainability goals.
These concerns ultimately led to years of hearings, review, and litigation.
In 2019, a coalition of city residents challenged the City’s condemnation process to acquire remaining property rights, arguing inadequate notice and insufficient justification. However, the case was dismissed; the group lacked legal standing because it did not hold interest in the affected properties. The case moved through appeals and the lower court’s ruling was ultimately upheld by the state Supreme Court in 2020. After continued fighting in federal court, the project resumed.
Since Burlington assumed management of the project in 1998, total costs have reached approximately $84 million, according to Burlington Public Works Director Chapin Spencer. Of that amount, roughly 95% was funded by federal transportation dollars, with the remainder shared between the state and city.
The City also assumed approximately $2.5 million in non-reimbursable expenses, including contaminated soil disposal, utility undergrounding, landscaping, and enhanced pedestrian features.
With all these costs and the pushback from residents, the City was warned that abandoning the project after decades of federal review and funding could expose Burlington to repayment and restarting portions of the federal approval process. While uncommon, repayment of funds has occurred in prior projects that did not advance to construction. In an example (appendix A) from 2020, Vermont was liable for repayment tied to canceled roadway projects in Bennington totaling well over a hundred thousand dollars.
The final phase of construction began in 2022 under a contract awarded to S.D. Ireland Kubricky Joint Venture LLC. The initial bid of approximately $41 million came in significantly above engineering estimates and was the only bid submitted. At the time of the bid acceptance, national inflation, supply chain disruptions, labor shortages, and increased demand from federal infrastructure funding programs were listed as contributing factors.
While the main parkway is now open to commuters, a final spur connecting Pine Street through the railyard to Battery Street is under development. City officials say that new connection will further improve traffic distribution in the South End and relieve pressure on Maple and King Street neighborhoods.