A DeWitt Town Board press release that favored a hybrid reconstruction of Syracuse’s Interstate 81 viaduct lacked support from the whole board, according to an email sent to The Daily Orange by one of the board’s members.  

“I’d like it to be very clear that ‘the Board’ is not unanimous with this belief,” said board member Kerin Rigney, in the email. “I did not sign their resolution asking to save 81 and I do not believe it to be in our Town’s best interest.”

The Jan. 15 press release was signed by five of the seven board members, including Edward Michalenko, the DeWitt town supervisor. The authors argued against the community grid option for I-81, instead supporting a “hybrid solution,” which could involve a reconstructed viaduct or tunnel in addition to a grid.

Anna Henderson | Digital Design Editor

Rigney supports the community grid replacement option. The grid would lower the elevated viaduct to street level and reroute traffic along Interstate 481, which would become a continuation of I-81. The leveled road would include 14 traffic signals, per the Town Board statement.

Rigney said she recently submitted a letter to Eagle News with more than 100 signatures from suburban residents in favor of the community grid method. She collected the signatures in two days with little concerted effort, Rigney said.

“I do not believe the DeWitt Town Supervisor is representing the people of DeWitt in his stance on I-81,” she said.

The Jan. 15 press release said a “limited minority of residents” continue to support the community grid option, and it referenced at least six public opinion polls conducted since 2013. The polls found that 18 percent of those surveyed favored the community grid option and 67 percent supported keeping I-81’s current route through Syracuse. 

Several other public officials, community leaders and organizations have expressed support for one of the three I-81 reconstruction methods. Mayor Ben Walsh reaffirmed his support for the community grid during his “State of the City” address last week.

In December, press releases from the Onondaga County Supervisors and Mayors’ associations expressed the organizations’ support for a viaduct reconstruction or hybrid tunnel approach.

A hybrid tunnel would combine the community grid option with an underground tunnel to address through traffic, while the construction of a new viaduct would be 10 feet taller and 16 feet wider than the current structure, according to a joint news release from the associations and a scoping report from the New York State Department of Transportation.

At the 2019 Women’s March Syracuse, Common Councilor Joe Driscoll, of the 5th district, spoke in favor of the community grid option and criticized the highway’s impact on the 15th Ward in Syracuse, a predominantly black and Jewish neighborhood. Decades ago, residents were forced to relocate and the neighborhood was destroyed due to the construction.

According to the Jan. 15 Town Board press release, a renovation method will be chosen shortly.

 “This decision is too important to get wrong,” Rigney said in the email.

Published on January 22, 2019 at 11:38 pm

Contact Emma: esfolts@syr.edu