Poll prep
STEM standout
Senate candidates talk policy, party politics ahead of primary
South Burlington student travels to Chicago for STEM competition
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South Burlington’s Community Newspaper Since 1977
the JULY 30, 2026
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City breaks ground on bike, ped bridge LIBERTY DARR STAFF WRITER
Energy was high Monday afternoon as the South Burlington broke ground on a project more than five years in the making: the bicycle and pedestrian bridge over Interstate 89. City officials, along with spokespeople for Vermont’s congressional delegation, cast the first golden shovels in the dirt, signifying the start of a construction project that hits close to home. “It’s no coincidence that bridges are highly symbolic,” South Burlington City Council Chair Tim Barritt told the crowd. “They’re meant to convey, but more importantly, they are meant to connect.” The project, other than being informally known as the Walk Bike Bridge, does not officially have a name yet, but it’s a longplanned project. The bridge will play a crucial role in the city’s vision to increase access for bikers and walkers. The span over I-89 will connect pedestrian pathways between Staples Plaza and the Quarry Hill residential area on the west side of the interstate to the University Mall property on the east side. It will help move pedestrians and cyclists between Burlington and South Burlington without having
to cross interstate off-ramps and on-ramps, which are seen as problematic and often dangerous intersections. “Currently, South Burlington’s walking and rolling infrastructure has two main problems, as I see it,” Havaleh Gagne, a member of the city’s bicycle and pedestrian committee, said. “It’s somewhat fragmented and it lacks visibility, even among the people who live here. Our new bridge will help with both of these problems.” Phase one construction work, which the city has awarded to Engineer’s Construction Inc., includes the bridge and the shared-use paths to Williston Road and the University Mall. It does not include the shared-use path around the CVS on Dorset Street and to Quarry Hill. Those will be part of the second phase of work. The city anticipates the first phase to be completed and open to the public in 2028. The nexus of this project, Barritt said, was in November 2021, when the city received a $9.76 million RAISE grant from the U.S. Office of the Secretary of Transportation. In subsequent years, federal grants for the project totaled $17.9 million, in addition to the roughly $70,000 See BRIDGE on page 12
VOLUME 50, NO. 31
Boats afloat
PHOTO BY SOPHIA BALUNEK
A few boats glisten in the evening light on Lake Champlain, as seen from Red Rocks Park.
City seeks more housing to extend tax breaks BRIANA BRADY STAFF WRITER
The calculations are in: South Burlington will need more development in its downtown Tax Increment Financing district to stay on track in paying down the debt on public infrastructure projects. Without it, the timeline to retire the
debt may extend by several years. While the city is still bringing in more through the financing than it owes on its debt — and will for the next couple of years — during a July 20 update to the city council, Community Development Director Ilona Blanchard said, starting next year, the city would need to add an average of 61 apartment units to
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the district per year to pay off the associated $36 million in debt by 2039. “When we look at the known development, we are pushing out the year at which we break even to 2046,” Blanchard said, adding See TIF DISTRICT on page 4
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