The new year will mark a milestone in the massive $2.25 billion I-81 Viaduct Project. While nowhere near the end of the massive road work, state officials say significant progress will be made in 2025.
State Department of Transportation Regional Director David Smith said the importance of 2025 hinges on the multi-phase way the interstate is being reconstructed.
“We anticipate all five phase one contracts to be in construction all at the same time, so that will be significant," Smith said.
Phases 1, 2, 3 and 4 have already started, with Phase 5 coming online.
"And that is really essentially from the Dome south, in that area between the Dome and matching up with contract two at the south end," Smith said. "So that we anticipate all of that work to be in construction."
State Transportation Commissioner Marie Therese Dominguez said the whole project is moving at pace.
"In terms of construction, we're making an enormous amount of progress," Dominguez said. "The great thing was — is last winter we were actually able to do a lot of work because it didn't get as cold and we didn't see the extreme weather here in the Syracuse area that we saw in other parts of the state. So it allowed the team to really make some great progress on construction alone."
This doesn’t mean the end of the project is in sight. It’s not expected to be completed till the end of 2028.
"We have a long way to go," Dominguez said. "We haven't even peaked, right? So contract five rounds out the first five of the phase one and then phase two is contracts six, seven, and eight."
As far as when the crumbling viaduct that split the city in two, and kickstarted this whole project comes down; Smith said that’s when those later contracts kick in.
"Once that's awarded, we'll get more conversation with the contractor and talk about schedules, you know, more directly with the contractor," Smith said. "But that's what we would anticipate right now is the first sections of the viaduct to be removed, in that contract and probably in 2026."
The project is still on budget, but Dominguez notes the state is carefully watching the potential impacts of tariffs threatened by the incoming Trump Administration.
"There are so many factors we don't know," Dominguez said. "We've heard the concept of what's being put forward, so now we'll actually have to see when it actually goes in place and analyze what the impact on the larger construction supply chain will be."
