Transportation um to give us an update on the I-81 Viaduct project.

Um I'm joined by Councillor Nave, Councillor Gathers, Councillor Hudson, Councillor Hogan, uh, Scott Butler, Mike Ryan, and Betsy Parmley from the Department of Transportation.

Uh we have a PowerPoint and some handouts.

I will hand it right over to the three of you.

Great.

Go for it.

Thank you, Counselor.

All right, we're gonna kind of click through uh PowerPoint that you have in front of you, kind of give you an update on our phase one contracts, give you an update on phase two, which will be starting next year, um, and then some other things that we're doing in the community um with health protections, local hire and others.

So we always start with the first, we have two phases of work.

Uh first phase is to build out the infrastructure we need to remove the viaduct.

So that consists of five contracts, one, two, three, one and two are designed build, and they are one's in Cicero, the others in the valley in DeWitt.

Contract three, which is the yellow is in the inner harbor area.

Um contract four is that blue, creating the new on and off ramps at Krauss and reconstructing Krause and Irving Avenue, and then contract five is in the heart of uh the South Side, bringing and creating the business loop and bringing it down to grade.

That's phase one.

Phase two, we'll go through is the reconstruction of 690, some sewer and water improvements along Erie Boulevard and Salina Street, and then seven is a sister contract to three, and eight is the removal of the viaduct and the build out of Almond Street.

So contract one up in Cicero.

Uh we are as close as we can be to completion of this phase.

So the in the interchange is open and operational.

We have a few little minor things to clean up before the first of the year, and then we'll come back in the spring to finish a small bridge on South Bay Road.

Um and finish that work.

But most of and if not phase, you know, contract one is mostly complete.

So that first one that we started in February-ish of 2023 is now at its completion.

Contract two, which is uh the southern interchange area in the valley.

Um we're getting closer and closer each day to having other parts of the infrastructure open.

As many of you know, we've been putting in roundabouts uh at at both ends of Brighton Avenue.

Those are open and not fully operational, but they are open and operating.

Um we have three of the four legs of the new East Glen open.

Um these are just some images just so you can see some of the infrastructure from when we started in the fall of 23 23, removing uh that spaghetti in the middle of now.

We're getting close to having uh 480, what is currently 481 to 81 south.

That should be open, hopefully by the first of the year, if not pretty soon after.

That has to be complete before you can start the actual teardown up closer to the city.

Correct.

Okay.

As you can see next to J Quith was the old bridge and the old uh East Glenn Avenue.

We've obviously shifted that uh on this image, obviously shifted it to the left.

That will uh produce an action by the planning commission and the council to accept that move.

Um just to put that on your radar, that will be coming as we get closer to completing this contract.

Um, which we believe the city or the administration has decided they'll abandon and tr create East Glen Old East Glen into a driveway, new East Glen will remain East Glen.

Moving on.

Any and by the way, if you have questions, just stop us.

Um contract three is the inner harbor.

This is where we're replacing the Bear Street, Court Street, and Spencer Street bridges, fully reconstructing uh North Clinton Street.

Um Mike helped me out.

What else are we doing?

So we're fully reconstructing North Clinton Street.

Um is also being pretty much fully reconstructed.

Uh the new port place.

Uh we're um realigning where Port Bridge, uh, where Court Street Bridge, how it comes in at a very large angle today.

We're straightening that out as you can see in that picture, and that's gonna connect to the the original alignment of Court Court Street or Court Place.

Uh we're also replacing the Butternut Street Bridge and the Spencer Street Bridge at the minute.

We're also removing all those little slip ramps you see along there.

We're condensing all of those into one location to North Clinton Street between Court Street and Bear Street.

You don't have a picture of Franklin Street, Butternut Street, and how we're in all up in the future.

You're talking about because it's always been the I think this one shows it to you, Councilor.

So there'll be so if you're we look above, of course, Pedash Premier and Walker.

Yep.

Sure.

So we'll be able to transverse without having life in Hampton.

Yes, sir.

Yes.

There'll be there's shared use paths that we're constructing all along Clinton Street.

Um so they'll be essentially from downtown because we're gonna extend Clinton Street out to Butternut.

It doesn't exist today.

We're gonna do that in the future contract.

So you'll be able to take that and um you'll cross Spencer Street, then you connect it back to the north side, essentially all the way up to High Watch.

We'll be able to walk or ride a bike.

So each bridge, so Spencer Street will have a shared use path, so you can walk with snow storage as well.

So it'll be wide enough to handle both bikes and pads.

It's very difficult to get to the like the dinosaur.

So Scott, when will uh uh Spencer Street uh open?

Are we looking at end of January or January?

We're we're working our tails off to have it have it open before the end of the year uh right now.

Um we were hoping the 19th, but it's looking like it's getting pushed a little bit closer to the uh the holiday, but we do plan to try our best to have it open by the first of the year, as well as the new on and off ramps to Clinton Street um coming southbound and going southbound.

And before I wanted to ask you, how are we doing with Low Dye Street and Burnett AF when I go by there?

It's still a lot of it's bumpy games.

Yeah, and when we get to contract four, we can go into a little bit more detail, but you know, we are doing the best we can.

You know, obviously, winter hit us a little bit sooner than we were probably expecting.

Obviously, we live here on the street.

I can always I can always look for another part kind of job.

Yeah, but uh we are we are that one is progressing.

We had an issue on the actual Low Dye Street Bridge itself.

All right, uh that's delayed us a little bit, but we are moving along as fast as we can as well.

Um we also replaced all of the water lines along Clinton Street during in this project.

Right.

I just wanted to add that.

So in all the contracts, not only are we putting in sidewalks, shared use paths, trees, in contract three, there's decorative lighting to the city's standards, a lot of water mains, sewer mains, all of that old infrastructure that's underground that you know um is pretty old, that's all getting replaced.

If whether we're impacting it or not, our work we know would be impactful, so it's all getting replaced.

And all our city departments have been aligned exactly.

We have bi-weekly coordination meetings with um DPW.

The Arborst and all that.

Oh, yes, yes, yes.

Yes, very close coordination, yeah.

Including consideration of what the designs will be for future maintenance.

So we're keeping an eye towards that because we don't want to install things that the city ultimately will struggle to maintain because of the sheer magnitude of it.

So those conversations.

Right, right.

Right.

So those conversations have been right along the whole time.

So, like Mike mentioned, this is another one to put on your radar as well.

Like Mike mentioned, we are straightening the Court Street Bridge, so it'll connect between Harbor View Lickers and the furniture store on a street that used to be called Court Place.

So we will be taking the action with uh the administration to start that process as well.

Um the naming process and turning the street technically back on.

So northbound right those those ramps northbound, you're consolidating how many into one.

So you're we're losing that pearl, that Pearl Street, that weird ramp there that merges in crazy, and then the next one goes to the barely merge.

Correct.

Right, okay, correct.

So to clarify, so this contract to kind of simplify this contract, contract three in the inner harbor right now, is really focused in the southbound direction.

So we're creating the new on and off ramps at North Clinton, but that removes the what is that, the Spencer and then can't.

Exactly.

So in the northbound direction, I think that's what you were referring to as Pearl Street.

So the Pearl Street on ramp will actually still be there.

But we're removing the help me out here, guys.

North State.

Yes, yes, North State.

That's a messy one.

Yes.

Yes, yes, the closely space.

So just I just wanted to clarify that.

So again, like like Betsy mentioned, with you know, creating shared use paths, sidewalks, you know, city lighting, as you guys have it written.

So that's you know, this is a look looking southbound on the new on and off ramps at Clinton Street and Clinton Street with a new sidewalk, the new lighting that has been installed.

Um advanced a little bit.

There's trees there now.

There's uh trees there now.

On the other path, this is in front of Destiny Arms.

We've actually built a shared use path on the one side of the roadway near the old uh coin uh laundromat.

Contract four, this is where we're you know punching through and creating new on and off ramps from at Krauss.

Uh we have opened the new Krauss eastbound on the 690 and have subsequently closed McBride Street.

Those were one for one swaps.

That'll also take, you know, when we open the new 690 westbound off-ramp at Krause, we'll close the towns and off-ramp as well.

So those are all one-for-one swaps.

Um the basic gist of what we're doing on contract four is we're obviously building the new on and off ramps um to go east and west on the 690, but also we're reconstructing Krauss and Irving Avenue, uh extending Irving Avenue all the way through from Fayette to Erie Boulevard, which doesn't exist today, as well as turning both Krauss and Irving into two ways.

That'll also be an action that needs to be taken take place sometime in the fall of next year to turn it to two.

So addressing your question about the low dye street bridge.

So currently that on-ramp from Krauss, it's a little short.

We're always looking to make you know tweaks to make sure the traveling public is safe.

Once that low dye street bridge work is done, which we're fighting against the season right now.

It's tough to do a concrete deck in the middle of winter, although we have ways to do it.

Umce that's open, then that will be a full run out of an on-ramp that you would expect on 690.

So right now it's just really in that work zone setup.

And as we said, you know, all of this the contracts we have inside the city were major making major infrastructure improvements.

So installing a new storm trunk line across Erie Boulevard was a part of a major part of that work, installing new city water lines in areas that were impacting.

Um, you know, this is a major part of these contracts as much as it is the roadways that were reconstructing, the sidewalks and so on, um, which will also provide a great benefit around Adaga Creek and the Metro trails, uh the net metro treatment plan.

Contract five, this is the big contract where we start to bring uh and remove the interstate and bring it down to grade level, starting at Calvin Street, building our roundabout at Van Buren.

Um, you know, just some images of what we're doing.

So to your left on these images, or your right on these images, excuse me, is current 81 north and south.

We had to kind of move and shift the traffic over so we can build the new entrance into the city.

And so what you can see next to the railroad tracks is the excavation to build the new business loop coming northbound uh into the city of Syracuse.

We're also moving a railroad bridge.

Uh we're also building a roundabout, and we're also reconstructing major water and sewer along Culvin Street.

Scott, yes, I'm gonna go bag.

You said we're removing railroad bridges.

We this particular contract, there's a railroad bridge over by Fine View, and so we have to shift it uh to the west.

Okay, so uh it's not gonna affect the tracks at all.

No, no, sir.

Oh, okay.

No, we have to actually build a temporary railroad alignment to keep the tracks to keep the trains moving, essentially.

Who's the railroad company?

Uh New York Susquehanna.

Okay, so you're working on thank you.

And now we'll move on to our phase two.

Okay, thanks, Scott.

So phase two, we're currently in design with this right now.

We've uh um been working pretty closely with the city, uh, like I mentioned, our our um our biweekly working groups.

So contract six.

Uh what we're really doing under this one is we're reconstructing we're reconstructing 690 from Leavenworth Ave all the way over to Irving.

Um we're also going to remove uh the connections from 690 to 81.

So all those bridges start to come down under this contract.

We're all then we're going to reconstruct the West Street interchange.

So that whole area is gonna we won't have that large retaining wall anymore.

It's gonna be uh West Street and Genesee Street is gonna be just an open intersection with uh signal, um no retaining wall.

So it'll really kind of start connecting the communities back together.

The uh we're also going to reconstruct the uh the um the Pearl Street on ramp um that we talked about a minute ago, and um that's gonna be uh the on-ramp that's gonna remain and the state street one goes away.

We'll also under this contract extend uh Suego Boulevard to intersect with uh Erie Boulevard.

So that'll be a way that you're going to now get off of business loop 81 in the future.

And then Pearl Street is also going to extend all the way down to Erie Boulevard, and that'll be the way that you enter um business loop 81 in the future.

And then we're gonna reconstruct all of Erie Boulevard, and then we're going to uh Erie Boulevard all the way over to Almond Street, and then a future contract will pick up from there.

Uh we'll also under this contract uh put in the new uh interchange at Irving Ave.

So this is finishing what's being done under contract four for creating that new interchange that Scott showed a minute ago.

So we'll put in a new bridge at Irving and the new on and off ramps at that location.

So that new interchange will be fully complete under this contract.

Um there's also a significant amount of um city streets are going to be reconstructed, um, water lines are going to be reconstructed, and their sewer lines are going to be reconstructed under this one as well.

The um we'll also be adding uh shared use paths and some bike lanes in in different areas as well.

And along right now, we have Onadog Creek Walk, which is on the east side of the creek.

We're gonna add another creek walk on the left hand or on the west side.

So that's gonna help um people from the west side be able to use that infrastructure.

There'll be some um crosswalk signalized crosswalks across West Street so you can get over there safely.

What about lighting?

Are you the lighting?

Yep, there'll be lighting, decorative lighting um that meets all the city requirements throughout the whole contract and on the um the creek walk.

And also lighting under the bridges and the parking lots, yeah, following the city's lighting requirements.

So that is contract six.

Oh, I guess I should mention too that there's also a significant number of trees that are gonna be planted.

There's also a lot of um plantering beds uh that we've been coordinating with the city arborist and the parks department um on the species types, the locations, all of that.

And just want to add, so this is for the past nine months probably.

We have been working every two weeks, we meet with um city staff, different agents, you know, different uh groups within the city to really work out those finer details.

So whether it's a five-foot buffer for snow um storage, you know, how wide the sidewalk is, um, what the connections are, what the you know, the you know, with vision zero in mind, things, you know, different different things that are very important to the city.

So we're we're you know, right locks up with the city on all of those finer elements because although a lot of this is reconstruction of I 690, like Mike mentioned, a lot of it is also on local city streets.

So we have been you know, for months now going through those those designs block by block.

So, and while we're doing the reconstruction of 690, we're gonna be able to maintain traffic um throughout the construction in the westbound direction.

Um the eastbound direction will have to be detoured for um a period of time, about a year and a half, which is the red line on that that that slide right there.

So I'll add to that though.

Sorry, just uh so one thing that's um kind of unique to this contract is uh similar to contracts one and two, it's a design build contract.

So basically what that means is we get our design up to about you know 30, 40 percent complete, and then we basically hand it over to design build teams.

They put their proposals together and they also um present what we call alternative technical concepts.

What those are are really innovative designs to keep the project on schedule, save money, you know.

Uh it takes into consideration the traveling public.

So we are still in that process, but what we are seeing is these design builders are coming up with some really innovative ways to do this contract.

So I just wanted to couch that a little bit.

That this is you know, these are the things that um you know we know are happening, and the way we can do it is we make it what we call directive.

So if the design builder wants to change it, they have to ask us.

So we are still fully in control, you know, with everything we've been working on in the last nine months, but there might be some changes coming this spring when we learn about officially what they're doing to manage traffic, especially.

So I just wanted to make note of that.

So it's a plan that evolves.

It it even it doesn't well evolve, I guess you could say it evolves.

Over a short period of time though, through during the procurement period with our review, we are very I mean, we we we get hundreds of questions from the design builders, we have to answer the questions.

Uh they send us proposals for us to review, we comment back, we accept, we reject things like that.

Now, we're just like I think obviously the community computer models regarding traffic.

Where does it show the traffic goes?

I mean it's I'm particularly interested in the grids down, where does that traffic over the norm that comes like south to north of the city?

Sure, that's a great question.

So for the whole project.

So lovely.

So in the like when the project's all done, is that what you mean?

Like when everything is said and done.

So one of the things our traffic studies showed from existing patterns is, you know, it's like the majority of the traffic traveling on 81 in downtown Syracuse is destined for these places in downtown Syracuse.

So that's where the new Colvin off ramp, northbound will provide an access point to the backside to the university.

Um the gateway to the hill from 690 at Crows and Irving will be an access point.

The West Street Interchange will be an access point, and then you can see it in this picture.

The business loop 81 at 690 in the Pearl and Oswego ramps that Mike mentioned, that's another access point.

So it doesn't show uh I should say south north ramps.

Yeah, we also look at that.

It doesn't have west and state street, just line the street and all the traffic normally comes up from the south.

Oh no, it covered this whole it it covered all of Onadaga County, actually.

So that traffic going through, it'll most likely use 41.

But when you say the east-west traffic into the city, obviously will the half off and go around just state streets, salina street off.

Yes, so how much more traffic will those of those particular streets get?

So our analysis show that of all the intersections, so we grade the operation.

Traffic analysis, that's how it kind of decides what's good and what's not good.

A is good, F is no good.

Out of all the intersections we looked at, and I think it was over 270 intersections, they would all fall around a level service C or D, which is perfect for an urban area.

That's what you want to see because it it's not uh gridlock per se, but it it's that slowing down of traffic, it's the it's the sweet spot for an urban area.

So there's no areas that we expect um there to be so much additional volume that you're going to see impacts to some of these corridors, and that's the beautiful thing of Syracuse in my opinion, because you have so many different east-west corridors that people can find different ways.

I hope that answers that question.

We'll still evolve.

We will evolve.

So Mike 690.

Do are we replacing the midler app bridge?

Um middler we go that far east.

No, we do not go that far east.

No, no, we we end right at Krauss.

That bridge could use some work.

Yeah, uh, we read to do some work.

We can't do everything in the 81 project.

I'll keep asking.

So um, with all the recon reconstruction, we have some advanced environmental commitments, and we'll get into that a little bit, uh, a little bit later.

But for this contract, or for all of our contracts, we go through and we identify a lot of the old historic buildings, and we make sure that we go and have vibration monitoring done so we don't damage any buildings, and we do condition surveys.

Um, and also during the uh the removal, we'll have demolition curtains up so um concrete doesn't inadvertently go into a building.

Um it also dams the noise as we're removing bridges, things like that.

Um so that is contract six.

Contract six A was originally part of Contract Six, but it's a stormwater trunk line.

We decided for um permitting reasons and a lot of utilities.

Um we decided to pull it out of contract six and make it its own contract.

So you can see the colored path right there.

That is where this storm trunk line is gonna go, and that storm trunk line is conveying all of the stormwater from the road.

So whatever it rains, it goes into the um the gutters, and then it needs to get discharged somewhere today, it goes into a combined uh system, and a lot of it makes it out to the metro plant, so it needs to be treated before it can be discharged.

This with stormwater, you don't necessarily need to do that.

So uh we're separating it all.

So this is gonna take out about 85 million gallons of water that's going to the metro plant um a year, so that's a big community benefit for everybody.

So um, and then as we're replacing the storm, we're installing the new storm trunk line.

We're also uh taking um liquid out of the sanitary sewers, so less goes to the metro plant, and we're also reconstructing sanitary sewers as as we go.

Um we're also replacing the water lines in this contract as well.

The um else do we have going?

Yeah, so uh and this one we've also been coordinating with the city as well.

Um, like I said, with with all the contracts.

We're we're going to reconstruct this all of those city streets along the way.

So uh most of them are from the curb lines, or and then many were also redoing the sidewalks and creating share these paths as well.

Um so we'll go to the next slide.

This kind of shows the scope or the magnitude of of those two contracts.

So contract six, we're replacing about a mile and a half of the interstate, but it's really 15 lane miles of roadway because it's three three lanes in each direction.

We're reconstructing 25 local streets, 37 bridges are being removed, 28 new bridges are being installed.

Um 17 ramps are being removed.

Uh the store, the combined sewer overflow.

I didn't mention, but that is a big part of contract six.

Um, it currently is underneath 690, so we need to move it out from underneath 690.

Um, then we have the detour.

Then contract 6A, it's about a mile length of storm uh trunk line that needs to get that we're installing.

And this is really a continuation of the storm trunk line that we saw pictures of in contract four.

Then contract eight will also pick up and and uh install that so we'll have a separated system throughout downtown.

The um about five local streets.

Well, five local streets are being reconstructed, two and a half lane miles.

We're installing nine new signals on under contract six A.

Contract six has I forget the exact number, but it's 20 something signals that are being replaced.

We've been working with the DPW on that.

Um so everything will be the standard.

And the um this storm trunk line, it's fairly large, so it's uh a eight and a half by twelve foot box, and it's about 20 feet down.

So this is a pretty significant um excavation that we're gonna need to do along that route.

And we are coordinating with all of the the businesses um as we do this, and we're going to phase it in a way to so not everybody is all impacted at once.

We're just gonna go um a couple blocks at a time and and work our way through it.

And we are going to avoid say tree lighting.

We don't want to do any work downtown at that point in time, so we'll have restrictions in our contracts so we don't do those uh works at those um critical times.

Right too historical areas.

Yes, yes, we are.

Yeah, so all of our contracts have um archaeological monitoring, including including native nation monitors, so they're there when we're excavating.

So those are the two contracts that are really in design right now.

Um contracts seven and eight.

Uh, we have not started our final design process.

Uh we are starting that very shortly, and um those actually coming up in the new year is probably we'll start having more conversations with the cities um with our working groups um to start going through those details.

So contract seven is really um kind of the sister contract to contract three.

So we're going to now start reconstructing all of 81 from about Butternut north.

Uh and then we're going to start consolidating all those ramps on the northbound side of 81.

So once we're done with um the reconstruction of 81, we'll have four lanes heading out of the city and three lanes heading into the city.

Uh we'll also have to reconstruct one of the bridges up by the mall uh, which is 81 southbound, it's over CSX.

Um Lake Creek and Harbor Side Drive.

We're also going to rehabilitate the bridge.

It's Hiawatha over 81.

I think the bridge deck uh needs some work, so we will uh we'll fix that while we're doing this uh this project as well.

Uh we will also add shared use paths in this contract.

So we're gonna pick up where contract three left off.

So once we cross the Spencer Street Bridge, we'll go down uh Sunset and then ultimately out to Hiawatha, and we'll create an overlook over by Lodi.

So contract eight.

This is where we reconstruct all of Almond Street, finish removing the viaduct.

Uh we'll reconstruct a portion of Harrison and Adam Street, and we'll convert those from the one-way sections to two-way.

And we'll also install the remainder of the trunk line on Almond Street, and we'll have our bike lanes, um, share bike lanes, sidewalks, uh, to make that uh complete street design for the new Aldman Street.

And this we also have the enhanced environmental commitments uh on this project on this contract as well.

So when you get down to the front street entrance, yeah.

You're working with SHA?

Yes, yes, yes, ma'am.

Yes, very closely on a bunch of different things, not only understanding you know how the residents walk throughout the neighborhoods, but also you know, making sure that we have the proper protections to make sure people don't have to be displaced while we do our construction.

Okay, and then I heard somebody talk about the barrier that you put up or the curtain or whatever it is to minimize the noise and you with that.

We we have a photo of that we can show you when we and we're doing that under contract five as well.

Once we because contract five, we'll start to remove um the southern portion of the viaduct so we can build a roundabout, and we're starting all of those enhanced environmental um there too.

Can you go over where it said BL81?

Is that the one that's gonna go uh lower mileage?

Yep.

Okay, so if I'm on 81, I want to get to do Park Street instead of going over the bridge.

So there is another direct lane.

Yep.

So you'll go where now you go kind of along the old retaining wall.

Right.

We'll have a new on ramp on contract seven that comes up over, and you'll exit under that on ramp to go to Park Street and so on if you're going north.

Right or regional markets from coming like from Pearl Street.

Yeah, okay, thank you.

And it'll still be from the Pearl Street on ramp, it'll still be a high speed heading out of the city kind of like it is today.

So it'll be 55 miles an hour north of Butternut Street.

Okay, thank you.

Okay.

So, you know, Councilor Hudson, this is where we're talking about our enhanced commitments.

So one of the things we're doing for all the bridges is we're removing the paint before we remove any of the structures.

So this is a photo of what we consider class B containment.

So we encapsulate the bridges, go in, remove any of the flaking and loose paint, right?

Dispose of it properly with steel drums and so on to the proper uh disposal sites, but this also keeps it contained within one particular spot.

So we'll go through when we start removing the viaduct in certain in when we start removing the viaduct, this is what you'll see in those sections.

So, like you said around Bird Street and so on.

The other thing we'll do is while we remove the viaduct, right?

Saw cut and other things, we'll also have a construction curtain that's raised and comes down to minimize dust, noise, and other particulates going where they shouldn't be going off of our site.

And I know this is a little different question, but think about you know, all the people that's lived there for all these years with all the lead and all the you know fumes and all that stuff.

Is the state gonna do something to uh remediate that?

So one of the so this is one way we're gonna mitigate that.

The other thing we're doing is water is our friend in a lot of these areas.

So I think if you were in the neighborhoods now, you'll see a lot of these types of water trucks going out to tampen down dust and and keep particulate to our construction site.

We're trying to dampen noise as well.

So when we remove the Spencer Street Bridge, instead of using a big whole ram jackhammer, we used shears and things of that to minimize noise.

The other thing we have um is we have noise and air monitors throughout our project.

So we have specific spots throughout the project where we're monitoring the noise in the air to make sure that our job is not making its way into people's homes and into the neighborhood.

So that's a picture of one right there that we have on the corner of Crowlson Water Street.

We have 13 of them up now, nine along our project five limits.

Um we have one in Wilson Park, two on both sides of the school, some up by the campus area, another one on the opposite side by Tumi Abbott.

So we know so we can kind of understand when we're dismantling the bridges and doing our work that we're not negatively impacting the neighborhoods more than then we should.

Then we already have.

And so that that was my question.

I guess I needed to re-rerouve the question.

What are we gonna do for the folks that's already suffering from respiratory issues because the highway was there?

What are we doing?

Great question.

So one of the things that we've done, well, first off, we have tacky nets that we're distributing throughout the neighborhoods so they'll minimize dust going into people's homes.

The other thing we've been working on very closely with the New York State Health Department is creating not only tip sheets for people to minimize the dust, minimize the allergents making it their way into their homes.

We've also been working with the poison control line to have a hotline for folks.

So if they have a respiratory element and they feel as though our construction is creating a problem.

Well, or not just the construction, the previous highway.

Right.

So if they have that, they can call this hotline, which is the poison control number, right?

They will talk to a registered nurse.

That person will help them through their ailment.

If they need to see a physician and don't have primary care, they will be referred to Syracuse Community Health Center where someone will triage them and take them through and find them the proper uh solutions to the ailments that they're going through.

I could hop in for one.

Uh President Hudson, I just want to say uh also I think uh part of what President Hudson was asking also long-term, like post-construction.

I think Scott's kind of talking about the construction post-construction.

Um, you know, while it's impossible to know definitively, the EIS projects roughly, and Betsy, you can correct me on this, a 30% reduction in the environmental uh hazards that are the pollutants that are presented because diesel trucks in particular, while they only make up seven percent of the uh traffic, they make up about 30% of the um toxins that and pollutants that cause the respiratory problem.

So by rerouting a lot of the diesel trucks on what will be the new 81 and not going business loop 81, you'll have a great reduction in the amount of pollutants that get into uh the community.

And so the the number that's um it's currently about 30, 40 percent um that tips the scale towards environmental injustice by reducing it by 30, 40 percent.

We expect a large reduction in the respiratory problems and heart disease that's in the corridor.

Is that is that all accurate?

But yeah, everything's just wanted to chime in on that one.

So you you can expect great reductions in in the respiratory problems for the neighborhood.

Long term, long term, okay, because that's what I'm looking at from the last 50 years to now, long term.

Yep.

Another thing that we have on all of our contracts, including our health commitments and our health mitigations is a local hire uh specification, which is for uh residents living inside the city of Syracuse zip codes as well as the Onadaga Nation.

Um this is attached to all of our contracts, and so some of the data that we have up here is you know, 15% of the work hours are to be performed be performed by uh city residents, and as you can see, these we have our five contracts up, you know, 17, you know, when you just look at some of the numbers, the percentage of the workforce and the work hours um were in the in the ballpark with a lot of those numbers.

Um the stat that I really like to show and just show our our commitment to doing this is our next slide.

Um to date, since we started this contract in 2023, we've had 288 people from either the Yanadaga Nation or the City of Syracuse work in some form on on one of our five contracts.

I can tell you that of that 288, 188 of them are have been retained and then continuously working throughout the years.

Um, and then you can see by craft, um, because we break things out by different crafts and how we do our work.

You can see how the other, you know, labor unions and other crafts are being accomplished within the local hire and with um male, female, and non-white.

The other thing, and I think just to point out, we have two tiers within our local hire.

There's the first tier is living in the city of Syracuse or the Onanaga Nation, and the second tier is living in one of those zip codes and also having one of the six uh nationally recognized barriers to employment.

And as you can see, of those 288 folks who've worked on our contracts, 96 of them have had a barrier to employment.

So, you know, really trying to cut down and give people the opportunity they asked us for uh during our NEPA process.

Next, just want to put on your guys' radar.

You know, one of the things that we've been going out into the public now to talk about is we're trying to not just have drab gray uh walls throughout the city of Syracuse and so on.

So we have various mural designs that you can see.

Uh we're taking consumer feedback on those now to say have the neighborhoods tell us what they want to see, what things we can put on the walls that obviously will be there long after we're finished with construction.

So, you know, we're taking consumer feedback now on what those look like, different historical figures, different themes, um, so on and so forth.

On the north side, the same.

We're trying to find ways we can dress up the walls as you come in and out of the city of Syracuse in various locations.

So if you were to go to our website, you would be able to comment back to us on things uh that you might want to see on certain areas of the interstate, Krauss Ave.

We're looking to uh pay homage uh to the former railroad with certain things and kind of the neighborhoods that connected under and around the neighborhood um around the railroad as well as a part of contract four.

So again, these are all available looking for feedback from not only you all but the community writ large.

So please let us know things we can add or subtract uh as we go along with our design with using local artists if we can.

We're still pursuing that.

This is somewhat unprecedented for New York State DOT to be perfectly honest, having artwork on our infrastructure.

So we're looking to see what we can do.

We did meet with the um public art commission um to kind of figure out how that process would look so we can inform our executives.

So I would say that's a work in progress.

But you know, I will stress that these ideas that we just showed, they are concepts, they look very finished, but that's so people can understand how detailed they really can be and what the potential is.

But certainly would love to hear very you know specific um ideas from people to help us do that.

Are these artists local?

And we look the local artists, because I know we brought this up in another neighborhood meeting.

We're still trying to see if we can use local artists and how that would work with the DOT.

Thank you.

And then obviously, you know, this is a major construction project happening across the city of Syracuse.

So we are out and about everywhere we possibly can be.

If you have other places you'd like us to be, just let us know, and we will do our best to make sure we're talking about the project and informing the neighbors about how our construction works and what we're doing.

The other thing is we always like to plug, we have our own app, I81 Connect.

If you're wondering what's going to be closed when or how it is, we push out notifications for different traffic pattern changes that we have throughout the day to inform the traveling public about where our construction is and is not taking place.

And that and that sums up.

So if there's any further questions, but that sums up the report we have for all of you today.

Anybody?

I'm good.

All right.

Thank you all for coming very much.

Thank you.

Joe Bear.

Yes, you bet.