This past week the NYS-DOT posted the last of the three presentations that the DOT Advisory Working Groups have been shown over the past few weeks. Now everyone can see the details — as far as they’ve been developed — for the sixteen replacement options for the I-81 viaduct. All of these presentations are now available at the I-81 Opportunities website. The various kinds of I-81 alternatives are split up among the three presentations as well as two “Other” options, that don’t fit into any of the above categories. These are the Western Bypass option and the West Street Option. All the options can be viewed at:
https://www.dot.ny.gov/i81opportunities/workinggroups
The next step in the process will be to eliminate all but a handful of these options before commencing work on the Environmental Impact Statement.
At the end of the June 4th presentation you’ll see there are cost range estimates for the various replacement types. The viaduct prices range from $800 million to $1.6 billion — quite a range. But that $800 million figure is for an option that would only patch-up the current viaduct without replacing it. It is an option DOT is required to consider — in case they become deadlocked on the replacement options — but this is not a viable solution given the current state of the viaduct. Among the replacement viaduct options, the least expensive is $1.4 billion. The prices for the street level options do include the cost of modifying I-481 and its interchanges so it can serve as the new I-81. On the other hand, none of these estimates include the cost of any land acquisition that might be required. So here are the real price ranges:
Patch-up and maintain the existing viaduct: $800 million
Tunnel options: $1.7 to $3.3 billion
Depressed highway options: $1.5 to $1.8 billion
New viaduct options: $1.4 to $1.6 billion
Street level options: $1.0 to 1.2 billion
Other: $1.2 to $2.2 billion