Town supervisors in Onondaga County continue to voice frustration with the project to replace the Interstate 81 viaduct in Syracuse.
Leaders of several surrounding suburbs feel their concerns have been ignored by the State Department of Transportation.
They fear that the plan to replace I-81 with a community grid will cut off many towns and villages, both geographically and economically.
Under the community grid proposal, crews would tear down the 1.4-mile stretch of elevated expressway through the city, improve existing streets in that part of the city, and reroute expressway traffic to Interstate 481 east around the city. Surrounding towns have been vocal throughout the last two years that the I-481 transformation would bylass thru-traffic around their areas.
Salina Town Supervisor Colleen Gunnip said the group is not against the grid, they just want a plan that works for everyone.
"We have 19 hotels, 56 restaurants, several fueling stations and a truck stop. All of that will go away without I-81 coming through Salina," Gunnip said. "And that revenue that we will lose isn’t just revenue loss to Salina. It is revenue loss to the city of Syracuse also. They get sales tax from the county."
A state DOT spokesman said in a statement that the department conducted extensive outreach throughout the county, including an open house and 11 neighborhood meetings, and one-on-one meetings with business owners and other stakeholders.
He adds that more than 1,000 comments were included in the draft environmental impact statement that was sent to the Federal Highway Administration, which is still under review. That statement is expected to be released to the public sometime this summer.
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April 21, 2021 at 09:55AM
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Towns still worry they'd lose out on current I-81 proposal - Spectrum News
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