More detours on 81, 690, with 481 still to come
690 is now reopened, but next weekend's planned closure in the other direction is already being called 'the perfect storm.'
/ Photojournalist Quindell Williams
SYRACUSE -- Road construction crews have a ways to go before they're finished this work season on the Syracuse Interstates.
The detours from this past weekend's big project on 690 headed toward Syracuse, ended early Monday afternoon. Next Friday, 690 headed toward the eastern suburbs will be shut down. Gene Cilento from the State Department of Transportation is already calling it 'the perfect storm.' Cilento says the shutdown of 690 will back traffic up to the 690-81 interchange and on 81 northbound to the interchange 690 will close at 9:00 p.m. Friday night after the SU home game, which means people leaving the Dome are likely to be surprised by the detours that are set up while they were watching football.
Cilento says most of the major construction work on 81, which is also causing backups, is done, though there are still detours and lane changes as workers finish up the ramps. Another big project, 690 at the Thruway entrance west of the Fairgrounds, is also making for detours. All should be done in November, weather permitting.
One more big project is about to start. Crews need to replace bridge decks on 481 over Kirkville Road and they hope to be done before the snows come. Cilento says the closures will be done over long weekends, but probably longer times than it is taking for the 690 work.
The long summer of detours is not sitting well with area motorists, who are finding detours where they can, but are putting much more traffic on Syracuse city streets. One man told us 'it takes an extra 20 minutes to get to downtown,' and that you can't catch a break because the delays are as bad as when it snows.
Susan Armstrong is also unhappy that the detours seem to change daily, so motorists have to pay extra attention to signs.
Cilento says that's because decision are being made in the field, to try to keep projects on schedule.
All the construction change updates are on the phone at 511, or on the www.511NY.org website
