Now that the state Department of Transportation has released a draft environmental impact statement on the future of Interstate 81 in Syracuse, Central New Yorkers are flipping through thousands of pages, explaining why the state is advocating the community grid option for replacing the elevated viaduct in downtown Syracuse.
So how does an interested citizen approach it?
John Felleman, an emeritus professor at SUNY ESF in Syracuse, has been consulting and working with these kinds of documents for 50 years.
"This draft impact statement is primarily a technical legal document, that has to stand up to court challenges and be certified by the federal government," said Felleman.
Most of the pages involve technical appendices on a variety of issues mandated by the federal government, everything from noise, to traffic safety, to the history of the project, to housing.
Right now, the state is looking for substantive critiques of the facts, or analysis of those facts. Often it takes experts in a particular field to be able to analyze those maps, graphs and tables. So for the average citizen, it can be very tricky. For example, Felleman said if you want to see how a community grid option would affect your commute, you would need to find the appropriate maps.
"Maybe they’re fold out maps in the physical documents, but they're not fold out maps in a PDF on a web page," said Felleman. "So people need to orient themselves. It would be nice if there were more accessible documents."
CenterState CEO President Rob Simpson said that’s the plan from the state, but in the meantime?
"The executive summary is a good place for people to look who really want to understand what the state took into consideration," said Simpson. "And I know the state is planning a lot of public engagement opportunities with engineers to explain some of the challenges people will encounter."
SUNY ESF acting President David Amberg would love to have one of those meetings on his campus.
"Particularly because I could get my faculty to participate, and talk about EIS’s. How to build an EIS, what is an EIS, and how should you read it."
There is plenty of time for people to digest and comment on what is currently called the Preliminary Draft Design Report and Environmental Impact Statement on the State DOT website. After informal meetings, there will be a formal public hearing with a 45-day comment period before the state issues a final Environmental Impact Statement, a process that should last well into 2020. After the final statement is released, the federal government will decide which option will replace the crumbling viaduct.
