By Kolby LaMarche

The City of Burlington’s Department of Public Works faced one of its most demanding winters in recent years during the 2025/26 season, as extreme cold combined with a widespread increase in the cost of salt.

Director Chapin Spencer, Street Maintenance Working Foreman Rich Thibault, Public Information Manager Robert Goulding and Division Director of Maintenance Lee Perry outlined the challenges and the department’s response in a new winter maintenance summary. 

The season’s snow totals stayed close to long-term averages, but temperatures plunged far below normal. 

From Dec. 1 through Feb. 11, the Burlington area experienced its coldest stretch in 17 years, with an average temperature of just 20.1 degrees, according to weather data. 

That marked the lowest such period since 2009. Road salt loses much of its effectiveness below 20 degrees, and during prolonged sub-20°F conditions, even liberal applications could not produce bare pavement. 

A major storm on Jan. 25-26 brought heavy, extended snowfall when salting was least effective, leaving some roads temporarily slicker than usual in the aftermath.

Crews logged 33 early call-ins to plow snow, recorded 10 early starts around 2 a.m. for snow removal, enforced three overnight parking bans and used approximately 2,000 tons of salt, all while operating on a 24/7 basis as needed.

“This winter combined extreme cold and a regional salt shortage,” the report states. “Crews maintained safety while reducing costs and environmental impact.”

While city officials kept Lake Champlain’s health in mind and worked to limit salt runoff, public safety remained the top priority. 

Burlington’s Snow and Ice Control Plan guided operations with pre-assigned truck and tractor routes. The city deployed 11 plow trucks, including one small unit for dead-ends and one spare, each route typically taking five to seven hours to complete. 

Eleven sidewalk tractors, including two spares, handled 130 miles of sidewalks. Basic clearing took six to seven hours, but salting extended that to more than eight hours and snow blowing could push it beyond 16 hours.

Priority zones included downtown, the Old North End and schools. Crews from Street Maintenance, Equipment Maintenance, Traffic, Water Resources and Parks, Recreation and Waterfront worked together under winter staffing rules spelled out in the AFSCME collective bargaining agreement, which covers the period from Nov. 1 to April 15. 

Fleet technicians stayed on call alongside plow operators to keep equipment running through long shifts.

Plowing and winter maintenance costs are all folded into the general Street Maintenance budget. For fiscal year 2026, expenses reached $2.9 million, including benefits, against $2.5 million in the base program budget. 

Revenues totaled $1.7 million, providing about 60 percent cost recovery through billable work such as sidewalk construction and water resources projects, plus roughly $300,000 from the annual Vermont Town Highway grant. 

The net unbillable cost stood at about $1.2 million, with plowing making up the majority. 

Estimated direct costs included $494,000 for plowing and salting 95 miles of roads and $529,000 for 130 miles of sidewalks. 

Those figures do not include indirect expenses such as rent at 645 Pine Street or a share of customer service support.

The dedicated road salt budget has not increased in nearly a decade and remains at $285,000, the department noted, even as prices rose 13 percent this year alone, climbing from $88 per ton in 2025 to $99.50 per ton in 2026. 

A $250,000 reserve fund set aside around 2017 for unexpected spikes in salt, labor or fuel costs was not needed this season. 

Over the past several years, more sophisticated application methods have helped the city cut annual salt use from about 4,000 tons to under 3,000 tons. 

This season’s total of roughly 2,000 tons continued that downward trend, benefiting both the budget and water quality in the Lake Champlain basin. Suppliers faced shortages across the region, and limited on-site storage added pressure, but advance ordering prevented any complete depletion.

To manage the combined stresses of cold weather and salt constraints, the department adopted a modified approach during longer storms. 

Fewer plow trucks operated on second shifts to conserve resources and reduce overtime. Sidewalk crews began overnight shifts later, at around 4 a.m. instead of 2 a.m. 

Equipment calibration and de-icing practices continued to improve precision. These changes remained flexible and storm-dependent, with public safety never compromised.

Looking ahead to the 2026 winter, officials anticipate continued challenges from temperature extremes and material costs. The existing reserve fund and ongoing improvements in application efficiency should provide some cushion, though broader regional coordination on salt supplies may grow increasingly important.