It’s not your imagination: There’s much, much more road-work going on this summer than ever before in Vermont’s history.

Last year likewise broke records for miles paved.

A double-shot of federal stimulus money to repair the state’s highways and bridges — to the tune of $143 million — has fueled what is probably the most visible evidence that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 is directly affecting Vermont.

The scale of upgrades and patchwork has precedent only in the aftermath of 1927’s catastrophic floods, which destroyed about 1,000 bridges in the state. After short but spirited debate, Vermonters swallowed their pride and agreed to accept $2.7 million in federal aid (about $33 million in today’s buying power).

This year, paving — the most tangible of enhancements, as far as motorists are concerned — accounted for more than half of this fiscal year’s transportation stimulus funding, said John Zicconi, spokesman for the Vermont Agency of Transportation.

This calendar year, Zicconi said, the department will pave about 250 miles of highways and Interstate, at the cost of $118 million. Last year’s total: 142 miles, $58.8 million.

Even in a slow season, emerging from a destructive freeze-and-thaw cycle, the emblems of Vermont’s short construction season are hard to miss: traffic cones, flaggers, raw asphalt and bridges shrouded in drop cloths.

Zicconi offered a back-of-the-envelope idea of how quickly VTrans crews entered the fast lane.

Vermont’s overall transportation budget, after dipping steadily for several years, rested at $412 million in fiscal year 2009. The following year it shot up to an all-time high of $565 million.

This year (fiscal year 2011) it edged up to $595 million.

“We don’t make a big distinction between stimulus and non-stimulus projects. But the lion’s share of our increase is directly related to stimulus,” Zicconi said.

He added that much of the department’s recent progress has been invisible — but not only because Vermont has declined to erect signs identifying ARRA projects (as a cost-cutting measure, Secretary David Dill “made the call with unanimous support from everyone at the agency”).

As impressive as finished projects might seem, Zicconi continued, stimulus funding also enabled more projects to take shape behind the scenes: at the design and engineering stages, and in the purchase of rights-of-ways.
“This bump allowed us to gear other things up, as well,” he said.

Jobs for Vermonters — conspicuous and otherwise — constitute the single-most-important component of the stimulus bill, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said last week.

“Stimulus funding has by no means solved all our problems. But it has created or saved 2.5 million jobs in this country, and 7,000 in Vermont. And these are jobs in areas where, in fact, we need work to be done,” Sanders said.

About 800 in-state, private sector jobs in transportation have been created directly through stimulus funding, according to a report prepared last month by Sanders’ office. It’s money well spent, the senator said.

“If you don’t invest in infrastructure, it’s not going to get any better,” he said. “Now is the time to continue that investment. Speaking as a former mayor, I know it might be tempting to delay that bridge repair for another year. Well, yes — that bridge is still standing — it’s just getting a little worse.”

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