State DOT seeks judge’s OK to award I-81 contracts while lawsuit against project proceeds

I-690 and I-81 Syracuse

An aerial view of Interstates 81 and 690 in Syracuse.

Syracuse, N.Y. – Lawyers for the state transportation department will be back in court Monday trying to convince state Supreme Court Justice Gerard Neri to lift or modify his injunction that blocks work on the $2.25 billion Interstate 81 project.

If the injunction stays in place, it could cost taxpayers “tens of millions of dollars, and likely far more,’’ the lawyers say.

Neri has scheduled a hearing for Monday afternoon. The state attorney general’s office will argue that if the judge declines to lift his injunction altogether, he should at least modify it to allow the Department of Transportation to work on awarding contracts for the project.

Lawyers for Renew 81 for All, the group that sued to stop the 81 project, said they will oppose the state’s motion. Neri issued a temporary restraining order Nov. 10 at Renew 81′s request. The order prevents any work – including paperwork – from proceeding until the case is resolved.

Renew 81, led by former Syracuse Police Chief Frank Fowler, is fighting DOT plans to replace the I-81 viaduct through Syracuse with a street-level community grid. The group claims the plan would increase pollution and traffic jams, among other ills, and advocates replacing the viaduct or building a “sky bridge” through the city.

The DOT approved the community grid plan earlier this year, after 14 years of study.

The first of eight DOT contracts for work on the project is due to be awarded by Jan. 14, according to documents filed today. Missing that deadline would be costly, according to court papers filed by Meredith Lee-Clark, assistant attorney general.

That’s the same argument Lee-Clark made at a hearing last month, before Neri issued the injunction.

This time, she will try to buttress her case with an affidavit from DOT official Jeffrey Moryl, whose sworn statement presumably goes into details about the financial risk of delay. Moryl’s affidavit has been sealed by the court, with agreement from both sides, to prevent disclosure of “confidential contractual and economic information.”

If the DOT does not award the contract by Jan. 14, the successful bidder could walk away from the deal, Lee-Clark argues. The next bidder in line would charge more money. And the second bidder might also choose to reject the contract “because of the cloud created” by the court injunction, she wrote.

Before the contract can be awarded, two state agencies besides the DOT – the attorney general’s office and the state comptroller -- must sign off on it. That process usually takes at least a month after the contract is finalized, Lee-Clark wrote. The first contract is due to be finalized Dec. 15, she said.

The DOT “is now missing critical target dates and deadlines that will cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars, and likely far more,’’ Lee-Clark wrote.

In a Nov. 28 letter to the parties, Neri said that his temporary restraining order would prevent the DOT from signing contracts it might have to breach later if Renew 81 wins its case. “Those results would cause obvious detrimental consequences to the contractors and the State of New York taxpayers,’’ Neri wrote.

Lee-Clark argues that Neri should reconsider, because taxpayers are not parties to the lawsuit.

The Renew 81 plaintiffs claim they would be harmed if DOT removes the I-81 viaduct in Syracuse and replaces it with a community grid. Those alleged harms can only occur as a result of physical construction, Lee-Clark says, not the engineering and contractual paperwork that precede it.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story listed the time of the hearing on Monday as 1 p.m. The judge later changed the time to 2 p.m. to accommodate a lawyer’s schedule.

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