Dangerous Burlington intersections to be redesigned with state dollars

Lilly St. Angelo, Burlington Free Press
·2 min read

Two high-crash intersections on Colchester Avenue will soon be redesigned to prioritize bike and pedestrian safety.

The Vermont Agency of Transportation chose to fund work on the intersection at Colchester Avenue and Prospect Street as well as the intersection where Colchester Avenue meets Riverside Avenue and Barrett Street and Mill Street near the Winooski Bridge in their 2023 budget. Visible changes won't be seen for at least two to three years, but improving the intersections have long been city priorities.

"Both proposals will create significant safety improvements," said Chapin Spencer, director of the Burlington's Department of Public Works.

A mock-up of the chosen re-design of the Colchester Avenue/Riverside Avenue/Barrett Street/Mill Street tangle of intersections. The restructuring would consolidate three intersections to one four-way intersection and one stop sign.
A mock-up of the chosen re-design of the Colchester Avenue/Riverside Avenue/Barrett Street/Mill Street tangle of intersections. The restructuring would consolidate three intersections to one four-way intersection and one stop sign.

The selections were a part of the state's new system for prioritizing road work that aims to maximize state funds by choosing projects that offer the most "transportation value" to taxpayers according to memos to the Burlington City Council.

What will change

The new design for the Colchester Avenue/Prospect Street intersection isn't so new. It was chosen as the best intersection redesign in a 2014 scoping study done by the Chittenden County Regional Planning Committee through an extensive process of public input and meetings.

Similarly, the CCRPC did a scoping study on the intersection near the Winooski Bridge published in 2019 in which the best redesign for this intersection was also identified. Funding for the projects just hasn't materialized until now.

In the new design of the Colchester Avenue/Prospect Street intersection, South Prospect Street will be angled slightly to the west to align with North Prospect Street and bike lanes will be added going both north and south. This will result in the left-turn lane and the lane going straight on South Prospect due north to be combined into one lane.

A mock-up of the intersection at Colchester Avenue and Prospect Street show the realignment of North and South Prospect Streets that will take place in the redesign. The streets are currently unaligned and the intersection has a high-crash rate.
A mock-up of the intersection at Colchester Avenue and Prospect Street show the realignment of North and South Prospect Streets that will take place in the redesign. The streets are currently unaligned and the intersection has a high-crash rate.

The tangle of three intersections that makes up the connection point between Riverside Avenue, Colchester Avenue, Barrett Street and Mill Street will be transformed into one four-way, traffic-light-controlled stop between Riverside, Colchester and Barrett and a stop-sign at Mill Street before drivers turn onto Colchester Avenue instead of a traffic light. The consolidation is meant to reduced confusion among unfamiliar drivers which contributes to the high number of crashes at the intersection.

Spencer said the redesign of Colchester/Riverside intersection may perfectly align with the rebuilding of the Winooski Bridge. Burlington and Winoooski hope to coordinate the two projects so that disruptions to traffic can be consolidated to one time period.

Contact Urban Change Reporter Lilly St. Angelo at lstangelo@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter: @lilly_st_ang.

This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Burlington road construction: State to fund high-crash intersections redesign