The weight postings are legally enforceable and are usually complied with. Photo by Tommy Gardner/News Citizen This story by Patrick Bilow was first published in News Citizen on March 12, 2026. Welcome to Vermont’s fifth season, mud season. Winter showed signs of defeat earlier this w eek as temperatures climbed into the 60s and the ground began to shake loose after months of frozen sleep. That was embraced by many, but for road crews across Lamoille County, it meant the onset of soft gravel roads that are susceptible to damage by vehicle travel. For many Vermonters who’ve endured countless thaws, mud season is not news — they simply steer clear of soft spots until the ground dries — but some operators need a reminder that gravel roads will try to swallow their vehicles this time of year. Especially the heavier ones. Starting last week, towns began posting weight restrictions on certain town-owned roads, targeting large trucks and commercial vehicles such as tractor trailers and fuel tankers. In Morristown, for example, that’s a 15,000-pound limit on two-axle vehicles, 18,000 pounds for three-axle vehicles and 20,000 pounds for tractor trailers. Stowe’s restrictions are similar. When roads become particularly muddy, municipalities will temporarily shut them down, which is what happened last week with Stowe’s Trapp Hill Road, a steep, winding gravel road that connects the von Trapp Family Lodge and Resort with Nebraska Valley Road. Despite the notice, one intrepid driver in a two-wheel-drive vehicle ignored the closure and trapped their sports car in the thick mud, according to Chris Jolly, Stowe’s assistant public works director. That doesn’t really happen further north, Morristown highway superintendent Jordan St. Onge said. “Sometimes if it’s bad enough, they’ve got to get a wrecker or a cable to pull them out because there’s not much we can do,” Stowe Public Works Director Harry Shepard said. He added that, when ruts in a soft road freeze overnight — because winter isn’t quite finished yet — they’re often sharp enough to pierce the tires of morning traffic. While the weight postings on gravel roads are meant to prevent heavy trucks from traveling on them, Shepard and St. Onge acknowledged that those are the same trucks that keep the world moving. They’re the milk trucks pulling product from what few local dairy farms are left; the tractor trailers pedaling food to remote restaurants and general stores; and the fuel tankers delivering a necessary source of heat for Vermonters who are still enduring winter. But they’d all sink in an instant on gravel roads that are too soft. That’s where employees like Brian Richardson, Stowe’s highway superintendent, come in handy. According to Shepard, Richardson hits the local roads as early as 4 a.m., taking notes on their condition and determining whether their suitable for large vehicle travel, among other daily duties. Large vehicle operators are in constant communication with town crew members like Richardson this time of year. Typically, they’ll call a day in advance of a delivery and get the green light if the roads freeze up enough overnight, despite the weight postings. “They always say good sugaring conditions are good road conditions,” St. Onge said. “You want it cold at night and warm in the day.” The weight postings are legally enforceable and are usually complied with, Shepard and St. Onge said, but in Stowe, limitations on heavily trafficked gravel road like River Road, which runs alongside Route 100 on the other side of the Little River, are sometimes contested. “(River Road) is almost a Class 2 town highway — really a local collector road,” Shepard said. “It receives a lot of traffic.” Town crews conduct maintenance on gravel roads both during mud season and later in the summer to prevent soft spots from forming again next spring. That typically involves laying stone and grating tire ruts with a York rake after they freeze. In addition to River Road, Molten Lane and Stowe Hollow, Edson Hill and Weeks Hill roads are examples of roads that require extra attention this time of year, Shepard said. “I think sometimes people think the town isn’t doing anything, or isn’t doing enough to respond to it, and that’s not the case” Jolly said. “There are instances when you can actually make things worse by quote, unquote ‘fixing it.’” Jolly likened mud season repairs to a childhood action of slapping a wet pile of dirt by hand — the more you touch it, the worse it gets, and eventually it’ll just turn to soup. “It’s important to acknowledge that mud season is a fact of life, and no amount of effort can stop it or prevent it,” he said. “It’s just something you have to get through.” Read the story on VTDigger here: Towns ban heavy rigs from muddy roads. ...read more read less