I-81 project receives $180 million federal grant
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The city of Syracuse and the New York State Department of Transportation will receive a $180 million federal grant for the Interstate 81 Project, Mayor Ben Walsh and Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Wednesday.
The grant from the United States Department of Transportation will fund several infrastructural improvements associated with the initiative. The funding is part of the U.S. DOT’s Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods Grant program. The program aims to advance community-centered transportation connection projects, specifically those that benefit disadvantaged communities, according to the DOT.
“Thanks to support from the Biden-Harris Administration, we are turning the vision of a reunified Syracuse into a reality,” Hochul said in a Wednesday press release. “The I-81 Viaduct Project will reconnect communities that a highway has divided for generations, proving that we can rebuild our infrastructure to support healthy and thriving neighborhoods.”
After a New York state appeals court dismissed Renew 81 For All’s legal challenge to the project in February, the DOT has been able to move forward with demolition of the viaduct. The city plans to replace the viaduct with a community grid, and held two informational open houses for its Community Grid Vision Plan in February, which lists additional quality-of-life improvements in conjunction with the community grid project.
Syracuse is one of the first cities in the U.S. to receive funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Neighborhood Access and Equity Program and was awarded the third largest grant.
The funding for the “I-81 Connecting Syracuse Project” will focus on transportation improvements to street networks to reconnect the neighborhoods affected by the removal of the viaduct and looks to address “social conditions and quality of life in disadvantaged communities” in the city, according to the release.
The improvements are part of the city’s New 15th Ward Transformation Plan – an initiative that targets the McKinney Manor, Pioneer Homes and Central Village neighborhoods. The city will create a complete street network with landscaping, lighting and public utilities and build Linear Park in the neighborhood, according to the release.
Components of the project also include the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Business Loop 81 — which Hochul initially announced in July 2023 — as a complete street, which will include a median, bike lanes, on-street parking, sidewalks and landscaping. The city plans to create a new Lodi Overlook over the northern section of the loop with a view of Onondaga Lake and surrounding areas.
Other construction initiatives include the planning and development of a new Canal District, a new bike and pedestrian path from Hiawatha Boulevard to Court Street and improvements to Wilson Park such as a new basketball court and splash pad.
The grant also looks to improve public infrastructure and separate the Onondaga Lake and Onondaga Creek sewer systems, according to the release.
“This is another historic win for Syracuse and Central New York that will help us realize the vision of a Community Grid built for people. New York State Department of Transportation and the City of Syracuse will be better able to improve mobility, rebuild city infrastructure, improve transportation, and strengthen neighborhoods, parks and public spaces,” Walsh said in the release.
The Neighborhood Access and Equity Grant Program funding comes directly from Sen. Chuck Schumer’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
“When I-81 was built it cut through the heart of Syracuse, it fractured a once vibrant neighborhood and left scars of systemic inequality that are felt to this day,” Schumer said in the release. “Federal policies are what created the concrete walls of I-81 that divided Syracuse neighborhoods, and today the federal government is stepping up to right that historical wrong.”
