The 1965 Greater Burlington Urban Area Highway Plan included a number of freeway and expressway projects planned. Of those, none were built as originally envisioned, though certain elements were constructed. Pink lines along the map represent highway projects planned for the metropolitan area; insets reveal interchange detail.
Burlington Belt Line
As envisioned in the 1965 Greater Burlington Urban Area Highway Plan, the Burlington Belt Line was designed to provide an alternate route to North Avenue in north Burlington and to alleviate anticipated traffic congested on the Burlington arterial streets. Planned to travel north a limited-access state highway parallel to U.S. 7, the Belt Line freeway would enter the south urban boundary and would cross U.S. 7 north of Bartletts Bay Road, parallel the Vermont Railway to the east toward Battery Park, cross North Avenue and North Street and depart the city street grid at Manhattan Avenue into the Intervale. Continuing north, the Belt Line would skim the eastern reaches of Ethan Allen Park on a northeastern trajectory to Colchester near the Heineburg Bridge, ultimately ending at Interstate 89 within the town.
Planning for the road design includes four general purposes lanes, each 12 feet in width, with 10 foot outside shoulders and a 16 foot median. Interchanges planned includes those with U.S. 7 (Shelburne Road) near Bartletts Bay Road [six-ramp partial cloverleaf], an extended Interstate 189 [trumpet], Flynn and Lakeside Avenues [split diamond], Main Street [directional T], Ward Street [modified diamond], a connector road to North Avenue near its intersection with Saratoga Avenue [trumpet], and a collector street from Ethan Allen Parkway to North Avenue opposite of its intersection with Loaldo Drive [diamond]. Totaling 8.07 miles, it was estimated to cost $26.2 million to construct.
The 1966 Legislature funded a portion of the Belt Line Project that opened in 1971 in the form of a two-lane roadway [Vermont 127] from Manhattan Drive north to North Avenue. Remainders of the project were deemed unfeasible by officials due to the extent of the right-of-way acquisition on the lake front, residential displacement, and lack of funding. However the City of Burlington did not object to the Belt Line project from Main Street south to Interstate 189 as a way to improve access to the CBD.
Southern Connector
In 1975 a consulting engineer hired by the City in 1974 proposed the construction of a new four-lane undivided arterial with at-grade intersections. The road would connect Interstate 189 with Pine Street north of Flynn Avenue along a new roadway following the old Belt Line pathway and upgrade Pine Street northward to Pine Place, where a second new segment would be built connecting the roadway with the south end of Battery Street. This project was dubbed the Southern Connector and funding was sought for its constructing in September 1975 from the federal government.
A Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) was prepared by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) in consultation with Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) in 1977. As part of the DEIS process, borings taken in the wetlands area along the project path of the Southern Connector revealed traces of oil-contamination. Comments from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) suggested to determine the extent of the contamination and the need to excavate and dispose of contaminated material.
Public review and a Corridor Hearing on the 1977 DEIS led to VTrans to recommend a New Location Alternative as the Selected Alternative. The new alternative included a controlled-access route independent of Pine Street, an alignment that would reduce the socio-economic disruption to adjacent neighborhoods. The Alternative was selected in the July 1979 Final EIS (FEIS) that was approved by FHWA.
Project development followed in 1981 that discovered the presence of coal gasification waste within the corridor right of way, an area known as the Pine Street Barge Canal. Officials with the EPA included the site on the National Priorities List (NPL) of Superfund Sites in 1983. This site remains on the list as the Pine Street Barge Canal Superfund Site.
During the spring of 1983, the Burlington Urban Design Study (BUDS) formed to deal with design aspects of the waterfront area. Their scope grew to encompass design elements of citywide growth and development, that included the Southern Connector in 1985. Design modifications involving the Connector included the reduction of the roadway from four to two lanes, landscaping including a median divider, pedestrian and bicycle accommodations, and the use of colored crosswalks and decorative lighting.
A DSEIS was issued in 1984 on the Southern Connector involving the hazardous waste assessment at the Pine Street Barge Canal Superfund Site. Remediation investigations conducted by VTrans however did not meet with the EPA’s approval and therefore the EPA overtook the responsibility for further remedial investigating at the superfund site. The 1984 DSEIS was subsequently withdrawn and attempts by the EPA to remedy the site in 1992-93 were met with public resistance.
Meanwhile in the late 1980s, construction did commence on the “C-1 Section” of the Southern Connector approved in the 1979 FEIS. A four-lane parkway extending west from the Interstate 189 and U.S. 7 interchange to Home Avenue two blocks west of Pine Street was built with the exception of the final pavement overlay, signs, pavement markings, a bike path, and landscaping. Due to the Pine Street Barge Canal Superfund Site, construction on the “C-2” and “C-8” sections were delayed and the “C-1” section never opened to traffic.
Champlain Parkway
Burlington City Council began referring to the Southern Connector as the Champlain Parkway during the 1990s. Officials in 1994 hired a consulting firm to conduct a transportation modeling and traffic operations study on an interim “C-2” section that would bypass the Pine Street Barge Canal Superfund Site. The study concluded that “C-6” was the optimal solution. VTrans followed with their own traffic analysis in 1995 and 1996 and issued a Supplemental EIS (SEIS) in January 1995 on impacts with a routing that bypassed the superfund site and allowed the completion of the 1979-approved Southern Connector alternative.
The 1996 Burlington Municipal Development Plan addressed the Champlain Parkway as a designated truck route designed to remove trucks from residential streets and as a alternate route into the city designed to remove through traffic from adjacent residential streets. Discussion on a March 7, 1996 Public Information Meeting debated the need of four versus two lanes and the need to blend roadway into the existing residential neighborhoods with its design. In 1997, VTrans prepared at FSEIS on a preferred interim alternative around the Pine Street Barge Canal Superfund Site, which was approved by the FHWA in August of 1997.
On October 21, 1998, VTrans and the City of Burlington agreed to share responsibilities of the Champlain Parkway project. Design engineering services followed on the interim alternative selected in 1997 in 1999. Public feedback continued through 2000 and the 2001 Burlington Municipal Development Plan carried forward the same objectives addressed in the 1996 plan involving the road as a truck and alternate route into Downtown, but as a two lane roadway instead of a four lane one. In March 2002, the City of Burlington modified the 1979 Selective Alternative and the 1997 Interim Alternative with the public feedback obtained, officially downsizing the road from a four to two lane facility. This development officially removed the “C-8” section through the superfund site from the project and endorsed the “C-1”, “C-2” and “C-6” alternatives as the permanent alignment.
Descriptions of the Sections:
- “C-1” – reconstruction of the Interstate 189 interchange with U.S. 7 (Shelburne Road) and the building of 0.6-miles of roadway from the interchange to Home Avenue. This was built in the late 1980s as a four-lane roadway.
- “C-2” – extends the Champlain Parkway northward from “C-1” at Home Avenue 0.7 miles to Lakeside Avenue. Right-of-way was already acquired for “C-2” as a four-lane highway.
- “C-8” – alignment north through the Pine Street Barge Canal Superfund Site between Lakeside Avenue and Main Street. A remediation plan was begun by the EPA at the superfund site.
- “C-6” – the interim alternative approved in the 1997 FSEIS, utilizes the existing street network via Lakeside Avenue to Pine Street and Pine Street north to the proposed Battery Street Extension at Pine Place. “C-6” continues along the Battery Street Extension northwest to Battery Street and along Battery Street to Main Street, the same end of the “C-8” alternative.
The 2006 Burlington Municipal Development Plan copies the same objectives sought in the 2001 Plan for the Champlain Parkway. Redesign of the parkway in 2001 downsized it from a limited access highway into a city street with bike lanes, sidewalks and trees. The objectives remain the same: designate the parkway as a truck route, as an alternate through route into Downtown, and blend the road into existing neighborhoods by constructing a two lane highway with narrow lanes, low design speeds, and safe pedestrian crossings.
A letter issued by Burlington Mayor Bob Kiss on August 4, 2006 endorsed construction of the Champlain Parkway and mentioned a new roadway from Interstate 189 to the intersection of Pine Street and Lakeside Avenue. It went on to reference improvements to existing Pine Street, east of the Pine Street Barge Canal Superfund Site {section “C-6”) and north to Maple Street, including sidewalk, streetscaping, road improvements and new traffic lights at Maple and King Streets. Mayor Kiss indicated that work might begin as early as spring 2007, but construction never materialized.