Costs — and frustrations — rise as Royalton waits for bridge

The maze of bucolic dirt roads on the west side of the Foxstand Bridge in Royalton are within earshot of Interstate 89.

But with the bridge over the White River closed to traffic, residents there may as well be a world away.

“I now have food delivered,” said Gidget Lyman, a former Royalton Select Board member who lives about a mile from the 165-foot truss bridge. “Really, to go anywhere and plan to be on time, I have to add an additional 20 minutes onto my commute.”

Lyman and roughly 80 other households have been in a state of waiting for more than two years, since engineers working for the state visited the century-old bridge and, finding it in remarkably poor condition, immediately recommended the state close it to traffic. Today, graffitied cement barriers wall it off to vehicles. Getting around the river requires a circuitous, mostly dirt-road route.

Though state officials say the timeframe for replacing the bridge is not unheard of, the yearslong wait has caused mounting strife within the Windsor County town — the closure even prompted a lawsuit earlier this year.

Meanwhile, the estimated cost of the project has risen to more than $11 million. That’s creating a new headache for local officials, who must find a way to pay for the town’s portion of the expenses.

Like most bridges in Vermont, the Foxstand Bridge is town-owned. But bridge projects are often expensive, and towns usually rely on a grant program through the state Agency of Transportation to help pay for them.

According to a list sent to state senators in April, 18 town bridges around Vermont are currently closed and another 17 sites have temporary bridges. The Agency of Transportation prioritizes projects based on a weighted scoring system, said Project Manager Jonathan Griffin. “The projects actively advancing forward are systematically those in the poorest structural condition,” he said.

Ryan Britch, the town administrator in Royalton, said it’s been a battle to get the bridge replacement on the state’s priority list. But this spring, the state verbally committed to finishing the project by 2028, Britch said. That end date is reiterated on the bridge’s project fact sheet.

“So I’m feeling very confident that that will be the official opening date,” Britch said.

Neighbors of the Foxstand aren’t so sure.

They’ve experienced setbacks dating back to 2022, when the Foxstand was on the state’s funding shortlist and construction was slated to be fully funded through a federal grant. That pot of money ran out before its turn came.

Then, after the state closed the bridge in 2024, Royalton’s stranded residents were told they’d soon get a temporary bridge from the state until a new permanent one could be built. But after the temporary bridge’s price tag tripled, the town’s select board voted against installing it so as to not pass increased costs off to taxpayers.

As time has ticked on, the town has found itself in a similar conundrum. Britch, the town manager, said they were preparing to foot the local match for a $6 million project. But this spring, he said, the state came back to the town with a final $11 million total project estimate, meaning the town needs to come up with more than $500,000 for its match.

Now, Royalton is considering levying a local option tax to help pay for the unforeseen costs. Residents will likely vote on whether to implement such a tax at their town meeting next March. (Royalton voters previously rejected a 1% local option tax in 2025.)

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Griffin, with the state, said the original cost estimate was a “back-of-the-napkin” figure that wasn’t intended to encompass the complete project cost.

But he also explained that projects across the board have gotten more expensive due to rising construction costs, which have almost doubled from pre-pandemic levels due to inflation. 

Those high costs are putting even more of a strain on the state’s transportation budget, which has been under pressure due to declining gas tax revenue. Calling the Foxstand’s issues the “tip of the spear,” State Sen. Becca White, who represents Royalton, said she thinks paying for municipal infrastructure projects will only get harder from here.

In the meantime, a small group of Royalton residents are bearing the costs of the bridge closure in less quantifiable ways.

Earlier this year, one resident, Tyler LaGrange, went so far as to sue the town for financial damages. He said he was spending more on gas and car maintenance as a result of all the detouring, and he argued that the town was negligent because it hadn’t repaired the bridge sooner.

But citing sovereign immunity — the principal that holds municipalities harmless for indirect damages to residents — a Windsor County judge dismissed his case. LaGrange said he has since appealed the decision.

Another set of Royalton residents, the Bigelows, own Foxville Farmstand right on the west end of the bridge.

They opened their farmstand during the pandemic and rely on drive-by traffic.

Since the bridge closed, “it’s much quieter,” said Jim Bigelow. And after a big drop in business the last two summers, they’ve closed the stand this year and are trying to find other ways to sell their corn and spinach.

Rachel Bigelow said she’s heard about the 2028 reopening. And she’s wary.

‘I’ll believe it when I see it,” she said.

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