State budget includes $800 million for I-81 renovation project

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The 2022 New York State budget allocates $800 million toward the first phase of construction on the I-81 viaduct-replacement project in downtown Syracuse.

The project will remove the highway’s existing elevated structure in the downtown area by constructing an integrated community grid.

The renovated portion will disburse traffic along local north-south streets, create a new business loop, and reconnect the neighborhoods “severed by construction of the interstate.” The project will also construct new shared-use paths for pedestrians and bicyclists and “enhance” access to public-transportation services within the downtown core.

“For years we have been working on a solution to transform the obsolete and poorly designed I-81 viaduct in Syracuse into a modern transportation corridor, and this year’s budget is making it a reality,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a release Friday.

The New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) has been working with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration to finalize the draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for this project. The department is on schedule   to release the DEIS for public comment and to conduct a public hearing later this summer. With federal approval, the project will break ground in 2022.

“Funding in the state budget for phase one of the I-81 viaduct project brings this transformational opportunity one step closer to reality,” Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh said. “The community grid is the right alternative to improve transportation for Syracuse and Central New York and to correct the decades long harmful impacts of the viaduct on people and our community. I thank Gov. Cuomo and the legislature for taking the steps to ensure this critically important project gets started as soon as possible.”

Pending federal approval, plans in the project’s first phase will include work on the northern and southern sections of “Business Loop 81,” work on Interstate 690 over Crouse and Irving Avenues, and the conversion of Interstate 481 to Interstate 81 including a number of road and bridge projects along the corridor, Cuomo’s office said.