Onondaga County completes two road-reconstruction projects for Save the Rain program

SYRACUSE — Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney today announced that the county has completed two “major” road-reconstruction projects that incorporate green infrastructure.

The projects on Westcott Street and West Onondaga Street are part of the county’s Save the Rain program, which seeks to reduce pollution from stormwater runoff in the effort to clean Onondaga Lake.

A Federal Amended Consent Judgment (ACJ) requires the clean-up effort, Onondaga County said in a news release.

“Westcott Street and West Onondaga Street are not only more beautiful but they are workhorses taking 6.5 million gallons of stormwater out of our system every year,” Mahoney said in the release.

The Westcott Street project targeted the business district between Dell Street and Concord Place.

The project included sustainable technologies, such as curb extensions, tree pits, and the use of porous pavement in the parking lanes, according to Onondaga County.

Besides the green-infrastructure features, the project also aimed to “improve safety” through traffic calming, shorter pedestrian-crosswalk distances, and efforts to discourage illegal parking, the county said.

With the sustainable installations complete, the city of Syracuse will reconstruct the roadway along the project limits this spring.

The project, which is part of a neighborhood-master plan that community residents and businesses developed in the 1990s, will capture an estimated 1 million gallons of stormwater annually, according to Onondaga County.

The West Onondaga Street green-gateway project targeted a street renovation between Shonnard Street and South Avenue.

The project involved the installation of sustainable-infrastructure elements such as curb extensions, underground-infiltration trenches, planter boxes, and tree plantings, Onondaga County said.

In addition, the project “improves safety” in the corridor with a revised traffic pattern, dedicated bike lanes, and improvements to pedestrian crosswalk areas, the county said.

In total, the project will capture more than 5.5 million gallons of stormwater runoff annually, according to Onondaga County.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com