Chittenden County
Snow plowing in
Essex, Vermont
Snow plowing in Essex covers neighborhood driveways, apartment entrances, retail approaches, and private roads connecting rural edges with denser village areas.
Local operating question
What is different about an Essex stop?
Town material distinguishes road classes and puts road infrastructure under Public Works. Confirm whether a lane is public, private, shared, or Class 4 before assigning responsibility. Route notes should also distinguish the Five Corners side of town from longer approaches toward Jericho and Westford. Essex properties along Route 15 and Route 117 tend to need a different visit order than the hill roads feeding rural edges toward Westford, since a two-inch trigger that works fine near Five Corners can leave a steep gravel approach already slick. Confirm which side of a shared or Class 4 lane your address sits on before the season, since responsibility and access can differ block to block within the same neighborhood.
How snow affects an Essex lot
The Essex Junction 1 N station records 85.9 inches of snow a year and snow on the ground on 101 days. That is a long season for a plowed edge to stay frozen.
Essex has five numbered highways: VT 2A, VT 15, VT 117, VT 128 and VT 289. A driveway on any of them takes the plow bank at its apron.
A drive on the slopes of Brigham Hill, at about 1,034 feet, drifts more than a flat lot near Essex Center.
A driveway in Pages Corner, Essex Center or Butlers Corners is scoped by its road and apron, since the village name says little about how the snow lands.
Indian Brook Reservoir lies inside the town, and low ground near it holds meltwater that refreezes on ice days. Route 15 and Route 117 carry the through traffic, so their aprons take the heaviest banks.
What Essex properties look like
Essex Junction, its neighbor, is a compact village of shared drives and storefronts on the same snow record. The lots differ, not the weather.
For an Essex property, write down which of the five routes the drive meets and where the bank lands. Note whether the road is a town street or a Class 4 highway, because upkeep of a Class 4 frontage falls on the owner. Model the Essex lot in the snow-service planning range calculator.
| Condition | Near Essex | 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 | VT 2A, VT 15, VT 117, VT 128 and VT 289 | US Census Bureau TIGER/Line map data |
| Named rivers | Browns River and Winooski River | USGS National Hydrography Dataset |
| Lakes and ponds | Indian Brook Reservoir | USGS Geographic Names Information System |
| Named places | Pages Corner, Essex Center and Butlers Corners | Same source |
| Highest summit | Brigham Hill, about 1,034 feet | USGS GNIS summit names; heights from the USGS 3D Elevation Program |
Parking bans and plowing rules in Essex
The Essex winter parking ban runs December 1 to April 1, and parking on town streets is barred from midnight to 7 a.m. The town also asks owners to move basketball hoops out of the right-of-way (winter information). Its ordinances put year-round upkeep of a Class 4 highway frontage, snow removal included, on the property owner who builds on it.
Snow plowing near Essex
Planning also covers Essex Junction, Jericho, Underhill, Hinesburg and Richmond, and the service-area directory lists every town.
Straight answers
Questions to settle before the snow flies
What should an Essex plan know about winter parking and plowing?
Overnight parking on town streets is barred from December 1 to April 1, from midnight to 7 a.m., so a private lot needs its own place for cars to wait during a push.