As the Interstate 81 project creeps closer to the heart of the city of Syracuse, residents are starting to see the impact of the massive construction project. Now, as the biggest contract in the project commences, there will be more issues than ever facing businesses and people who live in the shadow of the remaking of an interstate.
Syracuse lawmakers are hearing complaints from residents who are watching trucks carrying construction materials through their neighborhoods, as the creation of the new Business Loop 81 begins on the city’s South Side.
"They’re concerned about the dust, debris," said Syracuse Common Councilor Rasheada Caldwell. "Like one constituent says 'I never wash my car, because the trucks are coming up and down and I can never keep my car clean.'"
State Department of Transportation officials noted at a council meeting this week that mitigation steps are being taken, including using water trucks to wash away some of the dust. But for the city, I-81 Project Director Betsy Parmley warns central New Yorkers that bigger disruptions are yet to come, now that the state has awarded a $2.1 billion Phase 2 contract.
"This next contract, Contract 6, this is big," said Parmley. "This is all of 690 gets taken down and rebuilt."
It’s already impacting some businesses. Ty Shaw owns a uniform business on the city’s North Side. He said access to his shop has been blocked by project work on Burnet Avenue, endangering his business and those of other immigrants in the area.
"Now how is that people like us are going to survive?" Shaw asked. "You improving the city and the county, whatever it is you're doing, but you killing small business people. You killing my American dream."
Mike Hansen of Hansen’s Printing isn’t seeing the full impact yet, but noted his former loading dock sits in the footprint of the soon-to-be-remade Interstate 690.
"We have to come up with a solution or I'm going to have to move, or just close," Hansen said.
Councilor Helen Hudson says the state has to make these issues right.
"There has to be a compromise from the state somewhere, when you are talking about real people, and you’re talking about real lives," Hudson said.
The Department of Transportation's I-81 project team has been sending letters, and there is a toll-free phone line and even an app that allows people to reach officials. Parmley said there will be more of that communication as this next phase of the project commences this fall.
"So, agreed that we need to communicate better and we need to really have that pointed outreach to everyone along the corridor," Parmley said. "So that's our plan to really have those types of conversations."
The entire I-81 project is expected to be finished in 2031.
