By Kolby LaMarche

The city’s Department of Public Works (DPW) has released a detailed memo to the Public Works Commission explaining how the city manages its 130 miles of sidewalks and what work is planned through 2030, responding to years of complaints from Burlington residents, particularly those with disabilities. 

The program’s main goal is to keep sidewalks safe, accessible, and in good condition while adding new sections where gaps exist, the city says. 

Concrete sidewalks are designed to last 40 to 50 years, so the city has set a target of replacing roughly three miles each year. That pace allows the entire network to be refreshed within a 40-year cycle without large spikes in cost or disruption.

In 2020 the city completed a full assessment of every sidewalk using a wheeled device equipped with cameras, GPS, and sensors. The data collected that year created a public online dashboard which broke down the city’s sidewalks into ten-foot segments and assigned each segment two ratings. 

One rating, called the Barrier Score, measures physical problems such as cracks, heaving, steep cross-slopes, or standing water. The second rating, the Activity/Equity Score, estimates how many people use the sidewalk by looking at nearby schools, parks, senior centers, transit stops, and other destinations. It also factors in neighborhood demographics including income, race, ethnicity, and the number of households without cars. 

The two ratings are combined into a single Sidewalk Condition Index that guides staff when they decide which locations need work first.

The latest numbers show that about 13 miles of sidewalk, or ten percent of the total network, are currently in poor or serious condition, unusable to most residents. 

In 2025 the city replaced or will replace 3.08 miles of existing sidewalk, the department shared. That total includes 0.54 miles rebuilt under a dedicated sidewalk contract with SD Ireland, 0.38 miles handled by the city’s own Right-of-Way crews, and 2.16 miles completed as part of larger capital projects. 

Those larger projects include the Champlain Parkway, the Great Streets project on Main Street, the City Place redevelopment on Bank and St. Paul streets, and the annual street-paving contract. The city has met or exceeded the three-mile replacement goal almost every year for the past decade.

Funding for the coming years relies heavily on a General Obligation Bond that voters approved in 2025. The bond provides $1.7 million per year for three years, for a total of $5.1 million. 

City staff plan to spend the money aggressively in 2026, budgeting $2.6 million that year to stay on pace with the three-mile target, even though only $1.7 million is currently secured. 

After the bond money runs out, annual funding is expected to drop to $1.5 million or less unless new sources are found. With seven percent annual inflation built into the estimates, the purchasing power of those dollars will shrink quickly, and replacement mileage is projected to fall to just over one mile per year by 2030.

Specific streets scheduled for repair between 2026 and 2028 include Woodlawn Road, Wildwood Drive, Holly Lane, parts of North Avenue and Shelburne Street in 2026; North Willard Street, South Williams Street, and several smaller streets in 2027; and Oak, Walnut, Willow, and Cedar streets in 2028. Projects after 2028, such as Ferguson Avenue, Lyman Avenue, and Van Patten Parkway, are considered critical but remain unfunded at this time.

In addition to replacing worn-out sidewalks, the city is working to fill gaps where no sidewalk exists. Even with 130 miles already built, roughly seven miles of city streets still lack a pedestrian walkway. 

City policy, supported by the Public Works Commission and written into the 2017 planBTV Walk Bike plan, calls for at least one sidewalk on every street. New sidewalks are much more expensive than reconstruction and are almost always paid for with grants rather than local tax dollars.

This year the city received a planning grant to study three streets in the New North End: Cottage Grove, Green Acres Drive, and Stanbury Road. 

The study recommended against building a traditional sidewalk on Cottage Grove because of site constraints and low expected use. On Green Acres Drive, staff are considering a lower-cost protected walking path as a pilot project next year. Stanbury Road was recommended for a standard sidewalk with a grass buffer, and the city is now looking for grants to pay for construction.

The Department of Public Works stresses that decisions are driven by data from the sidewalk inventory, on-site inspections, resident complaints, coordination with other road projects, and equity considerations, they said. Large contract projects are grouped by neighborhood so crews can work efficiently in one area for an extended period. 

The city’s own Right-of-Way crews handle shorter repairs and respond quickly to urgent safety issues throughout the year.

City staff say the 2025 bond was an important step, but future funding shortfalls will make it hard to keep replacing three miles annually. 

They are asking the Public Works Commission and community partners for continued support in finding additional revenue so the sidewalk network remains safe and accessible for all residents.

You can read the full memo here.