A Cicero driver asks the DOT: Who thought it was a good idea to do so much construction at once? (video)

Who in the state transportation department thought it would be a good idea to build a new roundabout in Cicero at the same time Interstate 81 construction narrowed highway lanes and shut down bridges? Joelle Greer, a lifelong Cicero resident, wanted to know.

“We have detours for detours some days,” she wrote in a July letter to the editor. “It’s a literal nightmare.”

Greer sent in her letter after weeks of frustrating trips along Route 31 near the high school, over the one-lane South Bay Bridge and down I-81 to Camillus, where she teaches first grade.

It turns out, Dave Smith oversaw all of that construction as boss of the Central New York region for the state DOT. And he lives in Cicero.

We invited Smith to ride along with Greer and answer her questions about the wisdom of clogging up so much traffic in the northern suburbs.

Syracuse.com put a camera on the two as they drove around Cicero’s maze of orange cones. They talked about concrete, steel and bridge heights. He taught her how to do a zipper merge and confirmed, it really is OK to use every available lane to merge in a construction zone.

In the end, she said, she appreciated hearing Smith’s perspective, what she called the science of it. Nobody would walk into her classroom and tell her how to teach a kid to read, she said.

Watch the video to see Greer put on her citizen journalist hat. Here are some highlights:

Interstate 81 and 481

Greer asked a question on the minds of a lot of drivers in the northern suburbs: Why does Cicero have to suffer in order to tear down a bridge in Syracuse?

The state has started a project, worth $2.25 billion, to tear down the elevated I-81 that runs through downtown Syracuse.

But first, the state DOT is making big changes to I-481. In Cicero, that means building a brand new interchange where I-81 meets I-481.

The idea is to allow drivers to continue at high speeds from one highway to the other. I-481 is the ring road around the eastern and northern suburbs of Syracuse. More thru-traffic will use that road to bypass Syracuse once the state tears down the elevated highway.

The work at the northern interchange is expected to be finished by the end of this year.

The state has already opened two new “flyover ramps” that take drivers over what will become the new I-81.

New roundabout

At the same time, the DOT is adding a roundabout on Route 31 at the intersection with Thompson Road and Torchwood Lane.

Ideally, this unrelated project would have been started earlier so it did not overlap with I-81 construction.

But it took longer than expected to get the project started, Smith said. They had to get the right-of-way on all four corners and coordinate with utilities.

Later, the contractors poured some concrete that did not meet the DOT’s standards. It had to be replaced. But that didn’t delay the project.

“So curiosity,” Greer said. “How does a mistake like that happen? People wonder, like, how did they get the wrong mix?”

Smith said it is up to the contractor to use concrete that meets state standards. The good news, he said, is that they learned what they needed to do to complete the second half of the roundabout. It opened Friday.

The state chose to put a roundabout at that intersection to keep traffic flowing and to reduce severe accidents. When people crash in a roundabout, they tend to sideswipe other vehicles instead of colliding head-on at higher speeds.

Read more about why Cicero is getting a new roundabout and how to use roundabouts.

South Bay Road Bridge

Another big Cicero traffic jam is happening at the South Bay Road Bridge over I-81. The state is building a new bridge that will be four feet higher to accommodate a rise in the new highway below.

For now, only one side of the bridge is open to traffic and only to north-bound traffic. That has caused a lot of frustration in the community.

Smith explained the other options they considered and rejected. The DOT could have removed the whole bridge to rebuild it. That would have been a faster project. But they needed to keep at least one lane of traffic open for emergency services, he said.

Why did they decide to allow only northbound traffic? They considered alternating north and south drivers in one lane. But that would have caused significant delays on South Bay Road and that would have backed up traffic on Circle Drive and Route 11, he said.

“As drivers, we see what impacts us, but oftentimes, we don’t see the bigger picture in the larger network of vehicles,” Smith said.

Emergency vehicles do have the ability to override the traffic signal and drive southbound over the bridge if needed, he said.

The goal is to open both lanes of the bridge before winter weather begins.

People have noticed, Greer said, that the bridge feels like it’s tilted.

In the spring, Smith said, they may have to drop traffic to one lane again in order to reconstruct the approaches to the bridge, to fix what engineers call the “road profile” so it doesn’t feel like it’s leaning.

New signs

Eventually, the current I-481 will be renamed I-81 and the current I-81 will be called Business Loop 81.

Unrelated to the name changes, the state is also changing the exit numbers on the signs.

That’s because the Federal Highway Administration wants to number highway exits to correspond with mile markers. New York is behind other states.

Those new signs are going up now as the highway is rebuilt.