Geraci: Community grid plan ‘inappropriate’

By Ashley M. Casey

Staff Writer

The Lysander Town Board has passed a resolution in favor of maintaining the current placement of Interstate 81 through the city of Syracuse, joining a growing number of municipalities in Central New York that have passed similar resolutions. Among those towns are Marcellus, DeWitt, Cicero and Salina. The town of Salina — whose supervisor, Mark Nicotra, is a member of the Save81.org coalition — passed its resolution back in 2013.

Deputy Supervisor Bob Geraci made the motion at the Dec. 29 town board meeting. The board voted unanimously to approve the resolution, which can be found at bit.ly/Lysander1229.

“This is one of these issues that is so important to our community, and not just the greater Baldwinsville community but most of the outlying regions that are serviced by Route 81,” Geraci said.

The resolution rejects the boulevard or community grid solution favored by the New York State Department of Transportation, which would eliminate the existing elevated viaduct and disperse traffic throughout the streets of Syracuse. Through-traffic would be rerouted around the city to Route 481.

“If you’re traveling all the way down to Cortland or Binghamton, or if you’re going to Florida for that matter, you’ll pick up the interstate at another point [south of the city],” Geraci said.

Geraci said communities as far away as Watertown will be affected by the possible removal of the I-81 viaduct and called the grid solution “not sufficient or appropriate” for the greater Central New York region.

“Right now, it’s looking like the majority of people polled are opposed to a grid solution, so what we’re saying … is that if you want a grid, fine, but you have to be able to provide another thoroughfare to get through the city of Syracuse,” Geraci said. “That may be a tunnel or a low-grade roadway. The personal position that I have is that if you can’t do that, then you have to preserve the viaduct.”

According to a November poll commissioned by Save81.org, “59 percent of the respondents support keeping I-81 as an interstate highway through Syracuse with only 34 percent supporting turning it into a boulevard.”

Supervisor Joe Saraceni noted that the issue of I-81’s aging infrastructure has been discussed for years. He urged residents to inform themselves and “get involved” in finding a solution for I-81.

“I guess I always took for granted that 81 ran through the city of Syracuse,” Saraceni said. “[Route] 690 was always there, 81 was always there. If I needed to get south of the city, boom — it was an easy transition to 690. This will have significant ramifications for the residents of greater Baldwinsville.”

Saraceni cautioned that rerouting heavy interstate traffic east or west of the city would “put major demands on the city infrastructure that was not built for heavy traffic.”