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After a New York State Supreme Court judge temporarily halted progress on the state Department of Transportation’s plan to tear down and reconstruct the Interstate 81 highway in Syracuse on Nov. 10, local officials say they hope the project will be able to continue as planned.

State Supreme Court Justice Gerard Neri granted the ruling in favor of “Renew 81 For All,” the advocacy group that filed the lawsuit against the New York State Department of Transportation in September. The decision has stopped all progress on the project, including awarding contracts and construction, which was slated to start as early as this fall.

Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh wrote in a statement to The Daily Orange that the project’s delay is “unnecessary.” Now, he said the city is working with the state DOT and other partners to ensure the plan for the community grid alternative moves forward.

“It risks a setback to local people who need the jobs and opportunity that the $2 billion-plus infrastructure investment will create,” he said.

The community grid project entails tearing down the viaduct that passes over Almond Street and replacing it with a business loop. The community grid itself will disperse traffic traveling north-south and east-west to existing roads and redistribute high-speed traffic to portions of Interstates 481 and 690 set to be reconstructed, according to the DOT.

In the case, the Renew 81 group argues that potential negative environmental impacts of the community grid plan on Syracuse’s majority-Black Southside neighborhood amount to environmental racism. In its suit, the organization said the environmental impacts would exacerbate rather than resolve issues related to environmental racism that the highway already causes.

Walsh added that the reconstruction project has undergone a “rigorous multi-year review,” and pointed to the federal Record of Decision which authorized it in May.

“It should continue to move ahead,” Walsh said. “I look forward to the State’s response to the judge’s ruling.”

Former Syracuse Police Chief Frank Fowler leads Renew 81 along with Onondaga County Legislator Charles Garland, who owns a funeral home near the I-81 overpass, and a series of other community members. The group also represents the towns of Salina, Tully and DeWitt.

In an April 2019 statement, Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud publicly endorsed the community grid as the university’s preferred option for the replacement of I-81.

“It is my view that the Community Grid option most strongly aligns with the attributes and outcomes that Syracuse University previously endorsed as central to any I-81 replacement option,” Syverud wrote in the statement.

On Wednesday, SU added to the 2019 statement that it “remains committed to and affirms that position.”

“The Community Grid is best positioned to drive meaningful transformation across our community, and in the heart of our City,” Syverud wrote in 2019.

Patrick Hogan, a common councilor representing Syracuse’s second district, said he thinks the concerns about increased traffic and environmental impacts haven’t been properly addressed in the I-81 reconstruction project’s plans.

“There’s going to be an adverse impact on the Southside,” Hogan said.

Hogan also said the neighborhood around the elementary school and the rest of the highway could be broken up by tearing down I-81, causing further displacement.

Congressman John Katko and Congressman-Elect Brandon Williams of NY-22, as well as Gov. Kathy Hochul, have not commented on the project’s pause as of Wednesday night. Previously, Hochul called the community grid project a historic opportunity to correct injustice.

“We are boldly embracing this opportunity so we can reconnect neighborhoods and revitalize Central New York communities,” she wrote in a press release announcing the finalization of the community grid plan in May.

The viaduct’s original construction in the late 1950s and early 1960s began after the city of Syracuse petitioned for and received funding from the Federal Highway Administration. Construction resulted in the tearing down of and displacement of residents from the 15th ward, an economically successful neighborhood with a largely-Black population.

As a result of racist housing laws, displaced residents were forced into air pollution-afflicted housing near the viaduct and subjected to health issues and structural segregation.

While the project is currently halted, stoppages on large infrastructure projects connected to marginalized communities are not uncommon.

Previously, major highway infrastructure projects in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Washington have been halted due to concerns about environmental discrimination. In Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, groups argued against both the proposed Erie Bayfront Parkway and the Zoo Interchange highway project on the basis of negative health effects and resource removal for local residents.

Syracuse City Common Councilor Jimmy Monto said he feels I-81’s halt is unnecessary and a waste of time. He added that, despite the delay, there’s no reason the project shouldn’t continue.

“The decision was made, we’re tearing down 81 and (building) a community grid through the city,” Monto said. “To just keep extending it makes no sense to me.”

More coverage on I-81

• Lawsuit against I-81’s takedown has negative effects Syracuse needs to be aware of
• From its original construction to now, here’s everything you need to know about I-81
• Unbalanced distribution of vacant homes along I-81 demonstrates city’s stratification

  
  News Editor Kyle Chouinard contributed reporting for this story.

  Published on November 17, 2022 at 2:09 am

  Contact Stephanie: spwright@syr.edu

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