Chittenden County
Snow plowing in
Colchester, Vermont
Snow plowing in Colchester covers residential drives, apartment communities, commercial lots, private roads, and lake-influenced properties.
Local operating question
What is different about a Colchester stop?
Colchester publishes a formal snow-and-ice program and reports both arterial priorities and residential plow cycles; it also maintains paved and gravel public roads. Separate interstate and arterial access from neighborhood timing. Lake exposure, apartment parking, and the mix of short paved and longer gravel drives change the site plan. Colchester's lake-influenced properties and its mix of paved commercial lots with residential and gravel access mean a single visit standard rarely fits the whole town: an apartment community near the interstate corridor has different priorities than a longer gravel drive near the lake. Confirm which category your property falls into, since that changes both the expected trigger and the traction material a crew brings to the stop.
How snow affects a Colchester lot
The Essex Junction 1 N station gives Colchester 85.9 inches of snow a year and 101 days with snow on the ground.
I-89, US 2, US 7, VT 2A and VT 15 all cross town. Malletts Head is only about 322 feet, so the exposure that matters is the open water of the bay.
The Winooski and Lamoille rivers bound the town.
Shipman Hill, Nourses Corner and Thayer Beach are Colchester settlements, and the road matters more than the place name, because a lake lane and a US 7 lot are different jobs.
What Colchester properties look like
Milton next door records 50.1 inches of snow to Colchester's 85.9. That gap means a route written for one town does not fit the other. Colchester had 17,524 people in 2020, the most of any Vermont town. Saint Michael's College, the Vermont National Guard at Camp Johnson and apartment blocks near US 7 put large institutional lots beside camps on Malletts Bay. Many bay camps are seasonal, so a request should say whether the drive is used all winter.
For a Colchester lot, write down the stacking area on the lot itself. Contractors may not push snow onto public areas without permission, so a full stack needs a hauling trigger. Model the Colchester lot in the snow-service planning range calculator.
| Condition | Near Colchester | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Snowfall | 85.9 inches a year (Essex Junction 1 N) | NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals 1991-2020 (nearest station) |
| New-snow days | 23.5 a year | Same source |
| Snow-cover days | 101 a year | Same source |
| Ice days | 56 a year | Same source |
| Numbered highways | I-89, US 2, US 7, VT 2A and VT 15 | US Census Bureau TIGER/Line map data |
| Named rivers | Winooski River and Lamoille River | USGS National Hydrography Dataset |
| Lakes and ponds | Colchester Pond, Mill Pond, Lily Pad Pond and Winooski River Reservoir | USGS Geographic Names Information System |
| Named places | Shipman Hill, Nourses Corner, Thayer Beach, Walnut Ledge and Chimney Corner | Same source |
| Highest summit | Malletts Head, about 322 feet | USGS GNIS summit names; heights from the USGS 3D Elevation Program |
Parking bans and plowing rules in Colchester
Colchester's snow and ice removal program explains why plows leave a windrow across a driveway. Section 13-29 of its Code of Ordinances bars anyone from throwing or pushing snow or ice onto public areas without written permission from the Director of Public Works, and a contractor should not push a lot's snow into the street.
Snow plowing near Colchester
Planning also covers Essex, Essex Junction, Jericho, Underhill and Hinesburg, and the service-area directory lists every town.
Straight answers
Questions to settle before the snow flies
What should a Colchester plan know about winter parking and plowing?
No one may push or throw snow or ice onto public areas without the Public Works Director's written permission, so a contractor keeps a lot's snow on the lot.