A logo for the WE12 Bundled Bridge Project

The Worcester-Elmore Route 12 Bundled Bridges Project has received the 2026 Northeastern Transportation and Wildlife Conference (NETWC) Innovation – Transformation Award. The recognition reflects an approach that treated bridge replacement as more than an infrastructure need, strengthening an important transportation corridor while improving wildlife movement through Vermont’s landscape.

Why the Five Bridges were Bundled

Jon Olin accepts the award for the bundled bridge project
Jon Olin accepts the award for the bundled bridge project.

Vermont Route 12 winds through the steep, forested terrain of Worcester and Elmore, providing an important north–south connection for residents, businesses, emergency services, and visitors. Along an approximately 8.5-mile stretch of the corridor, five aging structures needed replacement. Each site presented a different combination of structural condition, hydraulic limitations, shallow bedrock, steep slopes, environmental resources, and limited space for construction.

Rather than advance the sites as isolated projects, the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) bundled the five replacements into a coordinated program. Hoyle Tanner developed the designs with consistent standards, staggered schedules, and shared project controls while responding to the distinct needs of Bridges 84, 87, 89, 90, and 94. The bundled approach created efficiencies in design and construction, supported accelerated delivery, and helped maintain progress across a complex, multi-year effort.

Designing for Movement Below the Roadway

 

Road-stream crossings can interrupt wildlife movement when long, narrow pipes, steep grades, exposed approaches, or physical barriers restrict safe passage and habitat connectivity. The Staying Connected Initiative (SCI) identified this region of central Vermont as a significant habitat block within its broader study area. From the outset, the design team worked closely with VTrans environmental specialists and wildlife experts to understand how each Route 12 crossing could better support aquatic and terrestrial movement for species ranging from turtles to moose.

a three-dimensional rendering to help with bridge design
Three-dimensional modeling helps project teams visualize bridge, channel, and site conditions as they evaluate and coordinate potential design solutions. Rendering above is of Bridge 90 (benching in stream embankment was not modeled).

Bridge 90: Restoring a Natural Passage

At Bridge 90 in Elmore, the project replaced an approximately 200-foot-long, 6-foot-diameter corrugated metal pipe with a 40-foot-long single-span bridge. The new opening allowed the team to re-establish a more natural stream channel and create improved passage beneath the roadway. Three-dimensional modeling helped the team communicate the proposed channel and wildlife-crossing improvements, coordinate the design, and evaluate how the reconstructed stream would fit within the constrained site.

Bridge 87: Guiding Smaller Animals to Safety

At Bridge 87 in Worcester, a 19-foot-wide box culvert was designed with a protected under-crossing and j-hook wildlife fencing. The fencing helps direct smaller terrestrial animals toward the structure instead of continuing along the roadway edge. This low-cost addition to the project represents how small design changes can yield big benefits to wildlife connectivity and traffic safety. The feature demonstrates how modest, carefully coordinated details can make a transportation investment more effective for wildlife connectivity.

Bridge 84: Designing with Species-Specific Insight

Bridge 84 crosses the North Branch of the Winooski River in the heavily forested Worcester Mountain Range. Here, the project team coordinated with environmental specialists, including a herpetologist who tracked rare reptile species before, during, and after construction. The resulting design incorporated custom features intended to support safe passage and preserve habitat connectivity beneath the bridge while also improving roadway geometry and replacing a deteriorated structure.

Bridge 84 featured with completed construction
Bridge 84

Innovation through Integration

The project’s innovation was not a single product or isolated design detail. It was the integration of structural engineering, hydraulics, roadway design, traffic management, environmental permitting, and construction planning across five sites. By bringing those disciplines together early, the team could identify opportunities that served multiple goals at once: larger and more resilient waterway openings, safer travel, practical construction staging, and improved ecological connectivity.

A Model for Resilient, Connected Infrastructure

The award recognizes a project that addressed several interconnected needs: replacing aging infrastructure, maintaining a vital transportation route, improving hydraulic performance, and creating safer passage for wildlife. It also demonstrates what can be accomplished when transportation engineering, environmental science, and construction planning are coordinated from the beginning.

We congratulate VTrans and the full project team on this recognition. We are grateful to the environmental and wildlife specialists, construction partners, and design professionals whose collaboration helped bring the five bridge replacements together as a cohesive design for connectivity.