The Syracuse.com quick summary doesn't really do today's meeting justice, but here it is:
I-81 debate narrows to two choices: new elevated highway or boulevard | syracuse.com
Essentially they have two determined feasible possibilities to study further: reconstruction (same idea, in place, but new build) or boulevard. Both would have some external features that would improve the overall situation - other ramps elsewhere, improvements around the area.
The biggest problem with reconstruction is it would be exceptionally difficult to reconstruct the highway properly and to fix the other problems (the short ramps, the nonexistent connections between north and west, the poor and concentrated hill access, etc.) in the amount of space available to do that in. Several of the obstacles to fixing it properly in place are brand new buildings or newly reconstructed buildings (the Upstate stuff, the COE, and the Crowne Plaza - and there's not much room on the other side to fix it either). And a new overpass will, guaranteed, be wider than the existing one, in order to create proper shoulders and well-banked curves and whatnot.
The boulevard model displayed at today's meeting (you can see the posters online, here:
I-81 : Virtual Public Meeting ) leaves it as a highway spur from 481 in the south, going to ground level boulevard near Van Buren St, and terminating at 690 approximately where Catherine Street (Almond on the other side of Erie) passes under it now in some fashion, with 81 north of 690 terminating as a highway at 690 with fixed connections (which, arguably, there isn't really room to do without the boulevard option), with improved drop exits to downtown at that terminus as well.
The tunnel, which I know has been a popular option, seems to have been well studied but due to the short length and narrow channel in which 81 operates now, it could only really be a thru tunnel with 690 access, and would mean the end of the Harrison-Adams exits entirely. To do a tunnel effectively requires more room to build than just the corridor that's available.
Okay, that ended up... substantially longer than what I started to write about. But I think, as conceived, that the boulevard option presented today is by far the best option still on the table... and, including the related interchange changes outside the section necessary, currently has a smaller price tag than any option other than keeping on throwing patchwork fixes at the existing structure - which a) they can't do in perpetuity and b) leads to more unplanned closures that frustrate commuters far more than any change will.
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