Vermont highway damage $300-$500 million, Searles says

MONTPELIER - Damage to the state highway system from tropical-storm flooding could hit $500 million, state officials told lawmakers this morning. And the cost to repair damage on municipal transportation infrastructure "is going to be huge, " according to Secretary of Transportation Brian Searles.

Preliminary damage estimates for state highways alone will likely fall somewhere between $300 million and $500 million, Searles said during a briefing to a panel of legislators.

That doesn't include the cost to fix municipal roads, where Irene inflicted similarly widespread devastation. As of yesterday, there were 1,128 road segments with some damage on the municipal system, and 207 of them remain closed, Searles said. There are another 132 damaged bridges, 77 of which are closed.

"There's a growing magnitutude of this storm damage that we can’t fully explain yet," Searles said.