State budget includes $1.1 billion for Interstate 81 viaduct-replacement project

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The newly approved New York State budget for fiscal year 2023 includes $1.1 billion for the upcoming Interstate 81 (I-81) viaduct-replacement project.

The funding is part of nearly $33 billion for transportation infrastructure in the spending plan, the office of Gov. Kathy Hochul said Saturday.

The money will help pay for the construction of the community grid to replace the aging viaduct that carries traffic through downtown Syracuse. The New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) have pegged the current project cost at $2.25 billion, up 12.5 percent from the original cost estimate of $2 billion, Mark Frechette, I-81 project team director, said in a Feb. 18 announcement.

As described in Hochul’s news release, the “community-grid project … will reconnect neighborhoods severed by construction of the original interstate and rejuvenate the downtown area with the construction of safe pedestrian and bicycle access for users of all ages and abilities.”

In a March 21 visit to Syracuse, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D–N.Y.) said the “most critical approval” that’s needed for the more than $2 billion Interstate 81 viaduct-replacement project is coming up soon.

The federal government will release the project’s environmental-impact statement (EIS) “within weeks and without question,” the Democrat’s office said in a news release about the visit. He spoke that morning at Forman Park at 717 E. Genesee St., just east of the elevated highway in downtown Syracuse.