A group opposed to the state’s plan to tear down Interstate 81 in Syracuse argued to a panel of state Supreme Court appellate justices in Rochester Monday that the state should throw out its $2.25 billion plan and start over.
Lawyers for the state Department of Transportation argued the project should move forward. Any delay will cost at least $25,000 a day, they said.
The judges did not rule on the arguments that have become familiar to Central New Yorkers as the case has played out over a full year.
But if you’re looking for clues, justices raised several questions that could show up in their decision. Justice Don Greenwood, of DeWitt, also pointed out, the court’s role is not to decide the political question about which of the state’s construction alternatives is the best.
The state and federal governments, in 2022, chose among several options to tear down the aging viaduct in Syracuse, sending local traffic on improved city streets and high-speed traffic around the city on an improved Interstate 481. They call it the community grid.
The group Renew 81 for All sued to stop the project. The group prefers an option that would keep high-speed traffic moving through downtown and has advocated for a 70-foot skyway over the city.
Supreme Court Justice Gerard Neri ruled in February that state should conduct three more environmental reviews before removing the 1.4-mile viaduct through downtown Syracuse. He allowed construction to begin in the suburbs.
One of the three supplemental reviews would consider the announcement, made after the state chose the highway design, that Micron Technologies would build a massive microchip plant in Clay.
Attorney Alan Knauff argued for Renew 81 that the Micron project changes everything. The state argued that details about Micron’s development are nothing more specific than a press release and that, eventually, Micron will have to do its own environmental impact study.
Presiding Justice Gerald Whelan interrupted Knauff’s testimony…
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