One thing State Supreme Court Judge Gerard Neri made clear as he heard arguments over the future of the Interstate 81 overpass in Syracuse is this: He has not been paying close attention to it for the last 10 years.
“I didn’t go to one meeting and I didn’t get involved at all, so this is all new to me,” Neri said after hearing arguments from a new group challenging the validity of the environmental review behind the state’s decision to tear down the highway.
Neri said his experience in court has been enlightening as he studies more than 84,000 pages of documents filed in the case.
He has been asked by the group Renew 81 for All to declare the state’s environmental review invalid, which would stop the state Department of Transportation from breaking ground. Neri has already granted the group’s request to put the groundbreaking on hold until he decides their case.
The state and federal governments are about to start awarding contracts on a $2.25 billion project that tears down the aging I-81 overpass and sends traffic to city streets and through the suburbs on Interstate 481.
Members of the opposition group, including Onondaga County Legislator Charles Garland, have advocated for the state to build a 70-foot “skyway” to keep high-speed traffic moving through the city. Other parties to the lawsuit are the town of Salina, which wants to keep the traffic, and the town of DeWitt, which does not.
Garland revived an old idea to build a skyway during his campaign in 2021. The state has said it could add $1 billion to the cost, take longer to build and knock down up to 40 buildings. It would be so big, it would have no exits for people to get to Syracuse University or the hospitals.
Alan Knauf, who represents Renew 81, tried to walk back the idea that the group advocates any one alternative.
The only issue before the court is whether the state followed environmental laws when it studied the impacts of various options to replace the highway with another elevated highway, a tunnel or a community grid.
Neri made it clear from the start of Thursday’s hearing that he could not make a decision based on good or bad ideas.
Neri struggled through questions about greenhouse gas emissions, traffic counts and water studies, admitting that he is not an expert on the topics. No witnesses were called to explain those points. At one point, he gestured to the witness stand and asked lawyers for Renew 81 why they did not bring experts to rebut the state’s claims.
“We weren’t trying to present a battle of the experts,” said Jonathan Tantillo, representing Renew 81.
Instead, Renew 81′s lawyers tried to use common sense to cast doubt on the state’s claims. For example, they said it doesn’t make sense that sending traffic on longer trips around the city and sending some traffic into the stop-and-go of traffic lights would reduce greenhouse gases.
Rochester attorney Alan Knauf, representing Renew 81 for All, challenged the state DOT's traffic data in court. The group sued the state over its environmental review on the 81 project.
Assistant Attorney General Meredith Lee-Clark, representing the DOT, said engineering studies are more complicated than the gut reactions of drivers.
The state also did not call any experts to testify, but pointed to volumes of data published over the last decade in draft and final environmental impact statements and responses to questions from the community.
The group also argued the state should be forced to redo its environmental studies in light of the news that Micron, the semiconductor manufacturer, has recently announced plans to build a $100 billion complex in the northern suburbs.
Lee-Clark said no one had heard of Micron when the state published its final decision on the removal of the overpass. She said there are still not enough details to conduct a traffic study. She said it would be Micron’s responsibility to conduct a traffic study when the company is ready to build.
The judge did not indicate how long it would take for him to decide.
Lee-Clark asked for the opponents to pay a bond of $25,000 per day for each day any court injunction delays the start of construction beyond April 1. Neri did not rule on that request.
Read more:
Why an I-81 ‘skyway’ would be costly and unworkable: ‘Who wants to live under a 70-foot bridge?’
NY Civil Liberties Union blasts group trying to stop I-81 project
Why DeWitt is suing to stop I-81 community grid (Guest Opinion by Ed Michalenko)
Black leaders in Syracuse angered and mystified by lawsuit that halts years of work on I-81
Save 81: Powerful forces masked as grassroots movement fight to keep interstate through Syracuse
Read the Interstate 81 Final EIS executive summary
Contact Michelle Breidenbach | mbreidenbach@syracuse.com | 315-470-3186.