As everyone anticipates what design will be adopted for the I-81 project through Syracuse, one Onondaga County Legislator already predicts how the construction will impact motorists. John Dougherty wants to formally ask the Governor and the State to make the construction project easier for motorists and communities.
"What I'd like to see is tolls eliminated between exits 39 and 34-A," Dougherty said. "So anyone getting on or off between any of those exits would simply not pay a toll.”
He says while no decision has been made on I-81, there’s no denying the volume of traffic on other nearby highways are going to be impacted.
"That's going to put a ton of traffic onto 481, 690, and I can only imagined the surface streets nearby," Dougherty said. "So, if the tolls go away on the Thruway before that, or when that happens, that would give drivers another opportunity to go east-west through the city.”
An estimated 40-thousand vehicles travel through Syracuse daily on the interstates. He also worries about the volume of extra traffic in surrounding areas including his district in Liverpool.
“There's a lot of traffic right now on these busy surface streets throughout the towns," Dougherty said. "If you took some of that traffic and diverted it to the Thruway, you would have people moving all at the same speed, all in the same direction. They would not only get to their destination faster, they would be able to avoid all of the red lights and the dangers associated with that.”
The state has been approached before about lifting Thruway tolls, and Dougherty feels confident with the County Executive at the top of the Thruway Board, that this time the measure has more of a chance. The County Legislature's Facilities Committee unanimously passed the request to send to the state. It still requires full Legislature approval. Dougherty says Albany and Buffalo have already passed similar toll elimination measures.
