BRAINTREE, Vt. -
The Vermont Agency of Transportation says nearly half of the repairs done after Tropical Storm Irene devastated the state need more work.
State workers inspected hundreds of projects from roads to bridges to other infrastructure.
"We're doing these repairs on the fly. These aren't designed projects," say Chris Cole, VTrans Director of Policy.
Cole says nearly half of the Irene projects, 323, need more work. He says in the race to open roads before winter some projects were rushed and others weren't done right.
"Have we learned lessons if we have to do emergency repairs, we don't have to be re-repairing the repairs?" asked FOX44.
"You always have to come back," says Cole.
This time Cole says they will try to keep equipment out of the water and they will work with state river experts.
"Pre-flood, post-flood, we want people to rebuild better for the next flood because we're going to get another one," says Todd Menees, a river management engineer.
At the Route 12A bridge in Braintree, that means moving the rocks around and bigger ones to the bottom.
"The rocks from here went down and piled up on just the other side of the bridge. And now we got a 13 foot hole down there," says neighbor Philip Farnsworth.
Farnsworth says while he would like more done he's at least happy the state is planning for future disasters.
"Because it cost us a lot of money this year," says Farnsworth.
The state hopes to begin repairs this year. It couldn't put a price on the work but says the federal government will cover 80-percent of the cost.
