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Over a year after the “Renew 81 For All” lawsuit halted progress on the removal of the Interstate 81 viaduct, the New York State Department of Transportation can now proceed with its demolition.

Renew 81 – a group opposing the plan – first filed the lawsuit in Sept. 2022. The lawsuit called for the DOT to pause the removal project to issue a new environmental study since the previous one was completed before the announcement of Micron Technology’s new plant in Clay. Over the last three years, the group has introduced several legal challenges against the DOT regarding the viaduct removal project.

The most recent lawsuit also claimed the DOT violated the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act by “(failing) to properly evaluate or minimize the additional greenhouse gasses” associated with the plan.

In November 2022, New York State Supreme Court Justice Gerard Neri ruled in favor of Renew 81’s claims, ordering the state to pause the project pending additional environmental studies. On Friday, a New York state appeals court dismissed this decision.

“Not unlike the wasted year re-studying a tunnel option, this lawsuit cost taxpayers a lot of money and caused needless delays,” Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh wrote in a Feb. 2 press release. “For better health, stronger neighborhoods, and improved transportation, it’s time to move full speed ahead with all aspects of the Community Grid plan.”

During a Monday press conference, Gov. Kathy Hochul said she intends to “(make) up for lost time” on the project after ongoing “litigation and fights.” She said she was excited to see the courts support the “unification” of the Syracuse community and added that the viaduct’s removal is the “most important infrastructure project Syracuse has seen in a century.”

The I-81 viaduct, which was first built as part of the Eisenhower Administration’s Interstate Highway System initiative in the 1950s and 1960s, led to the demolition of Syracuse’s 15th ward, a historically Black neighborhood, and displaced 1,300 families. The viaduct, which runs through the former neighborhood, created a physical racial division throughout the city.

Since I-81’s inception and multi-stage construction process, the viaduct has sparked protests across the Syracuse community. As the highway generated more traffic, the infrastructure also began to deteriorate — with the DOT finding several structural deficiencies across the corridor.

The New York Civil Liberties Union expressed its opposition to halting the removal process. In a Friday press release, the group, which submitted an amicus brief advocating for the community grid project in 2022, supported the court’s recent decision. NYCLU wrote that preserving the viaduct is “not an option under any circumstances” given community feedback against I-81.

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“We’re glad the court recognized what we, fellow advocates, and Syracuse residents have known for generations: replacing the I-81 viaduct with a raised highway is not an option under any circumstances,” NYCLU Racial Justice Center Director Lanessa Chaplin wrote in the press release.

After 14 years of deliberation and public comment periods, New York state announced in 2016 that it was considering replacing portions of the viaduct with a community grid. The state decided to pursue the project in 2019. Two years later, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the city was to begin implementing its estimated $2 billion plan.

Following the announcement, multiple groups, including Renew 81, opposed the viaduct’s removal. Over the last three years, the group has introduced several legal challenges against the DOT regarding the viaduct removal project.

On Sept. 30, 2022, Renew 81 submitted its first petition to the New York State Supreme Court, which alleged the plan violated the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act along with multiple other pieces of legislation.

Neri ruled in favor of Renew 81, ordering the DOT to indefinitely pause construction on the project, during the Nov. 2022 hearing. A few months later, the court made its final decision, with Neri halting the viaduct removal pending environmental reviews, according to the ruling.

Several local community leaders spoke out against the decision. At the time, Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh called the delay “unnecessary” in a written statement to The Daily Orange, citing that the project had already gone through a “rigorous multi-year review.”

With the support of community stakeholders, the DOT then appealed Neri’s decision. After a year-long appeal process, the Appellate Division for the Fourth Department of the state’s Supreme Court unanimously voted in favor of the appeal, dismissing the ruling from Renew 81’s lawsuit, syracuse.com reported.

Onondaga County Legislator Charles Garland told syracuse.com that Renew 81 planned to appeal the dismissal. The group consists of Garland, Central New York Area Labor Federation President Ann Marie Taliercio, Deacon Nathan Gunn and the towns of Salina, DeWitt and Tully. Garland also said the group’s lawsuit against the federal government is still pending.

Now, the state can continue the project as planned without the need for more environmental testing. According to syracuse.com, the DOT is in the early phases of beginning work on the highway outside the city and will start the removal process in 2026.

“Any attempts to ‘save’ I-81 are intent on preserving a symbol of structural racism that has supercharged segregation, decimated land value, and polluted the environment, and we will fight these attempts in court every step of the way,” Chaplin wrote.

Asst. Digital Editor Griffin Uribe Brown contributed reporting to this article.

Published on February 6, 2024 at 11:59 pm

Contact Julia: jmboehni@syr.edu