Earth Support Corp

Windsor CountyVermont

Chester, Vermont

Bedrock sits a median 24 ft down across 726 logs, deeper than the Vermont median of 20 ft. 2 of its 49 inventoried bridges are rated poor (4%, against 4% statewide).

Median depth to bedrock

24 ft

middle half 8–55 ft · 726 logs

Bridges rated poor

2

of 49 inventoried

FEMA repair $, Windsor County

$90.5M

federal share since 2010 · county-wide

01 · Ground

Rock turns up a median 24 ft down

From 726 depth-to-rock records inside Chester (Vermont DEC well records). Logs cluster where people drill wells and bore for roads, so treat this as the town’s pattern, not a site answer.

Half of Chester's logs reach rock between 8 and 55 ft

Depth to bedrock: 10th–90th percentile whisker, middle-half box, median tick; dashed line = Vermont median.
median 24 ft
VT 20 ft
0255075 ft
0501001502000–5 ft5–10 ft10–20 ft20–50 ft50–100 ft100+ ft
n = 726 logsSource: Vermont DEC well records
▸ Show the numbers
Depth to rock (ft)Logs
0–590
5–10113
10–20112
20–50197
50–100151
100+63

Rock within 10 ft

33%

of logs (34% across Vermont). Shallow rock means ledge in excavations, refusal for driven piles and rock anchors rather than soil nails; deep ground means taller shoring and more groundwater. 28% of logs here go past 50 ft.
Bedrock & soils across New England

02 · Bridges

2 of 49 bridges are rated poor — about the same as the Vermont rate of 4%

Every highway bridge and large culvert in the 2025 National Bridge Inventory that stands inside Chester. Median age 60 years; 12 posted for weight.

49% good, 4% poor

FHWA good / fair / poor rating — the lowest of deck, superstructure, substructure or culvert.
  • Good24 · 49%
  • Fair23 · 47%
  • Poor2 · 4%

Structures by decade built

0246810pre-19101910s1930s1940s1950s1960s1970s1980s1990s2000s2010s2020s
n = 49 structuresSource: FHWA National Bridge Inventory 2025
▸ Show the numbers
BuiltStructures
pre-19101
1910s2
1930s10
1940s6
1950s1
1960s5
1970s9
1980s3
1990s4
2000s3
2010s4
2020s1

The poor-rated bridges

Bridges rated poor in Chester
CarriesOverBuiltDaily traffic
VT 00103 MLWILLIAMS R. & GMRR19625,600
C3050postedWILLIAMS RIVER196010
Every poor bridge in New England

03 · Dams & disasters

Windsor County has drawn $90.5M in federal disaster repair since 2010

FEMA Public Assistance is reported by county, so the figure below is Windsor County-wide context, not a Chester number.

FEMA Public Assistance, Windsor County

$90.5M

Federal share obligated across 1,345 projects in 8 declared disasters since 2010. The largest category is roads & bridges (86%); roads & bridges took $77.4M.
Dams, disasters & moving ground

04 · Next door

Chester and the 9 towns that border it

A dash means no data for that layer, not zero.
Chester compared with neighbouring towns
TownPoor bridgesRock depth
Chester, VT2 / 4924 ft
Springfield, VT2 / 3524 ft
Rockingham, VT5 / 2227 ft
Grafton, VT0 / 1830 ft
Ludlow, VT0 / 1622 ft
Andover, VT0 / 1522 ft
Weathersfield, VT0 / 1423 ft
Cavendish, VT0 / 1320 ft
Windham, VT0 / 710 ft
Baltimore, VT—16 ft

Where these numbers come from

Method, sources & caveats

Chester is the Census county subdivision 5002713675 (Windsor County). Every record is placed here by its coordinates, not by the place name the source uses.

  • Towns are Census county subdivisions: cities, towns, plantations, and Maine/New Hampshire unorganized territories and townships. Every record is placed in a town by its coordinates (point-in-polygon), not by the source's own place label — so a bridge in Roxbury counts for Boston and a well in 'North Waltham' counts for Waltham.
  • Bridges: FHWA NBI 2025, highway structures ≥ 20 ft including large culverts. 'Poor' is FHWA's good/fair/poor rating (lowest of deck, superstructure, substructure or culvert ≤ 4). Percent-poor is shown only for towns with at least 5 structures.
  • Depth to bedrock is the median of driller- and boring-reported depths in the town, shown only where at least 10 logs exist. Water-well logs over-sample rural lots and hilltops; one town median never describes a particular site.
  • Bedrock depths use the same state databases and filters as the Bedrock & soils module (bedrock wells and borings that reached rock, 0 < depth ≤ 400 ft, exact re-filings dropped), but every log is placed in a town by its coordinates rather than the driller's town field, so town counts can differ slightly between the two pages. Connecticut and Rhode Island have no statewide public well-log database with depths.
  • Dams: only high-hazard-potential dams whose latest condition assessment is Poor or Unsatisfactory are counted (live NID). Connecticut and Rhode Island assessments may lag.
  • FEMA Public Assistance dollars are federal share obligated for disasters declared since 2010, reported by county — they are county context, not a town figure.
  • Grant awards are Massachusetts only (EEA Dam & Seawall program, MVP Action grants, CZM Coastal Resilience). Other states' programs are not yet included.
  • Ground-related permit counts cover only the municipal portals the pipeline reads (Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Worcester, Framingham, Providence, Portsmouth, Hartford and a few others) — an absent count means 'not covered', not zero.
Data as of
Sep 11, 2026
Generated
Sep 11, 2026
Records
367,748
Refresh
Live pull · weekly

Published by Earth Support Corp as a public resource. Regional statistics for planning and curiosity. They are not an engineering report, a bid recommendation or a statement about any particular site, firm or project. Spot an error? Tell us and we will correct it. Full method: methodology.

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