To celebrate the start of the I-81 project, more than a dozen leaders from every level of government tossed dirt with golden shovels Friday near an elementary school in the shadow of the highway overpass slated to be torn down.
U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer called for another round of dirt tossing. Then another. And another.
“Finally, this day has arrived,” Gov. Kathy Hochul had said earlier to a crowd packed inside the Martin Luther King School gym. “How long have we been waiting, my friends?”
Hochul, Schumer, U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and White House infrastructure adviser Mitch Landrieu assembled in Syracuse to mark the start of the $2.25 billion reworking of the elevated highway that split the city into haves and have-nots more than 60 years ago.
The state’s grand celebration was a show of confidence that the biggest project ever in Upstate New York is indeed on – even as opponents appeal to courts to stop it.
After more than a decade of debate, the state and federal governments have settled on the so-called community grid – a plan to remove 1.4 miles of elevated highway and send local traffic to street level and high-speed traffic around the city on Interstate 481.
A generation of current and retired state engineers lined up to watch.
Hochul, Schumer, Gillibrand and Landrieu talked about building something that recognizes past mistakes and repairs a community. The governor declared an end to the era of dividing neighborhoods for public works projects.
“Our vision is not just about building roads and bridges. We’re not just talking about fixing streets and sidewalks,” Hochul said. “It’s about bringing people back together.”
At the same time the highway comes down, the city has a $1 billion plan to tear down hundreds of aging public housing units and build new streets, parks and an improved school system in the surrounding neighborhood.
A new logo for the project uses the words “livability” and “connectivity” and shows cars, trucks, pedestrians and cyclists. Mayor Ben Walsh wore a pair of socks with bicycles to honor new trails to be built alongside city streets.
The curated guest list Friday included people like former Common Councilor Van Robinson, who had fought for years to bring down the viaduct.
It included the people who pushed the state to give construction jobs to local residents. The people fighting lead paint pollution held up signs. Neighbors who rallied for the state to move a traffic roundabout away from the school pumped their fists in the back row.
The gathering did not include the many people who fought to keep the elevated highway as it is or the people who wanted a tunnel or a so-called skyway named after Harriet Tubman.
County Legislator Charles Garland, who joined an opposition group in a lawsuit against the plan, said he was not invited. He stood alone outside the school.
Garland pointed out a reason the groundbreaking was symbolic to him. The dirt the dignitaries were tossing had been poured along a street that will become a dead end, cutting off an easy route from one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city to one of the wealthiest.
Garland has joined suburban towns to form a group called Renew 81 for All, which has sued the state and federal governments to stop the entire project. They would prefer the state build an alternative that keeps high-speed traffic flowing through Syracuse. Garland does not want more cars in neighborhoods on the South Side.
The group suffered a setback in court Thursday when the state Supreme Court Appellate Division rejected its request to stop the project while appeals are considered.
Late last year, state Supreme Court Justice Gerard Neri heard the group’s request to require more studies before tearing down the viaduct. Neri ordered the state to conduct three more environmental studies in the suburbs before removing the viaduct in the city. But he allowed the first part of the project to proceed.
Hochul wasted no time awarding the first contract in January – for $296 million to a group of contractors calling themselves Salt City Constructors LLC.
The second contract was approved this week – $384.5 million. It went to a group of contractors calling themselves CNY Alliance.
Those contracts will rework the interchanges both north and south of the city, where I-81 meets I-481. They plan to add lanes and design higher-speed entrances and exits to accommodate new users.
The state has quietly spent $29 million and ordered millions of dollars more in materials they can’t return. The volume is massive: 1,700 precast retaining wall units, steel for five bridges, a custom GPS system to use on site.
While dignitaries tossed shovel-sized dirt on a South Side street, large machinery is clearing trees and removing sound barriers a few miles to the north.
In her first week as governor, Hochul said, she visited Syracuse and walked around the neighborhood near the highway. In her first meeting with her transportation commissioner, she said, she told them to get moving.
On Thursday, hours after the court rejected the request to shut down the project, she announced a groundbreaking ceremony would be held the next day.
By Friday morning, dozens of people were filing into the elementary school gym, roads were closed and the theater of dirt, shovels and yellow construction vests had been staged.
“My team will tell you, I’m impatient,” she said Friday. “This was debated for what seemed forever and communities get tired of waiting. You know what, while they’re waiting, they’re losing faith. They’re just thinking that people don’t care enough.”
A voice in the audience confirmed, “Right.”
Read more about I-81:
After a mixed decision in court, NY sticks to plan to remove I-81 through Syracuse
Here’s what the first part of Syracuse’s I-81 construction will look like (maps)
Video: See how new I-690 exits will change commute to Syracuse University, hospitals, dome
What can Syracuse learn from Rochester about rebuilding a neighborhood split by a highway? 7 tips
How much are taxpayers spending to keep I-81 in Syracuse safe before NY tears it down?
I-81: Upstate NY’s biggest highway project is about to start, but maybe not where you think
Why an I-81 ‘skyway’ would be costly and unworkable: ‘Who wants to live under a 70-foot bridge?’
New group, using SAVE 81′s playbook, tries to stop I-81 project with last-minute lawsuit
Contact Michelle Breidenbach | mbreidenbach@syracuse.com | 315-470-3186.