community after community, isolated islands where roads and bridges once served, brothers john and doug casella had an idea. doug said, governor, you get the department of motor vehicles to lift the ban on hauling heavy equipment across what's left of our roads and get us permission to retrieve some of the rock and gravel that irene washed from our roads into our streams, and we'll partner with other private contractors like belding company, mosier excavating, wilk paving and the national guard, and we can have route 4 open in three weeks. as soon as i got high enough in the chopper to actually have cell service in vermont -- [ laughter ] >> -- i called several people, and within hours, our team complied with doug's request not just to rutland but to the whole state of vermont. and guess what? guess what? nine days later, route 9 from wilmington to bennington opened. eight days later, route 4 open. and today all roads destroyed by irene, open. [ applause [ applause ] >> members of our team are here today. i would ask you to please stand. you represent many of vermont construction companies who,