After a State Supreme Court Judge ruled portions of the Interstate 81 project could not proceed, Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh spoke about the decision during the joint legislative budget hearing last week. He said the city's attorneys are still reviewing the decision.
"It does appear to create uncertainty for the project while the certain elements of the project are able to move forward per the decision, certain parts, namely anything impacting directly the elevated viaduct, are not," Walsh said.
Judge Gerard Neri's ruling orders the state to complete a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement. The ruling allows the state to proceed with improvements to I-481 and I-81 interchanges north and south of the city. It also allows for work on some streets in the Northside area of Syracuse to proceed.
"We're going to continue to move everything forward that we can," Walsh said. "But given the comprehensive nature of the environmental review, we continue to feel confident that the environmental review was sufficient, and we're hopeful that we are able to ultimately prove that and proceed with the entirety of the project."
The mayor said once legal challenges are resolved, he believes the community grid will strengthen the city and create thousands of good-paying jobs.
