By Kienan Dixon SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) – The debate on what to do with a portion of Interstate-81 through downtown Syracuse could reach a final decision in the next year.
The New York State Department of Transportation has recommended the community grid project after reviewing several proposals.
Should the city choose the community grid project, it will take two years to complete from the start of construction and will cost over two- billion-dollars.
Project Director Mark Frechette says there are still steps that need to be taken before the project can move to the next phase of construction.
“We still have four noise meetings coming up also. We have other types of meetings. I have a lot of requests from stakeholders to get together.”
While the recommendation was made in April, officials from the NYSDOT are still holding town hall meetings to field suggestions for the project. Frechette says these suggestions are helping in a major way in finalizing details on the project before it is approved, and they hold the meetings to get as many opinions as possible.
There are still four proposals on the table: the tunnel, community grid, viaduct renovation and maintaining the current viaduct.
Local resident Constance Nyman is swift to answer when asked about which direction the city should go. “The best one is the grid option. I’ve been pulling for that from the beginning.”
Frechette encourages residents to attend meetings and have their input heard before a final decision is made.
