Six I-81 Closures Are Real Right Now. Five More on the State’s List Already Ended.

Twelve travel advisories are posted right now on the New York State Department of Transportation’s page for the I-81 Viaduct Project. Seven of them describe work that is actually happening, at six locations. The other five describe work that already ended, in one case nearly three years ago.

The page gives no indication of which is which. It carries no last-updated date, either for the page as a whole or for any single advisory, a gap CNY Signal confirmed by checking the page directly on Sept. 2, 2026, at both web addresses NYSDOT currently uses for it. Each advisory gives a day of the week and a date, such as “Monday, July 6,” but never a year.

That gap is checkable. A given month-and-day combination lands on a particular weekday only once every several years, so matching NYSDOT’s stated day against a calendar pins down the year with no guessing involved. Running that check against all 12 posted advisories sorted them cleanly into two piles.

Five Advisories Are Simply Old

“Monday, August 12” for a lane reduction on I-690 eastbound matches August 2024, not 2025 or 2026, and the advisory’s own end date, “spring of 2025,” has already passed. “Monday, September 11” for a ramp closure at I-81 southbound’s Exit 16A matches September 2023, more than two years ago, carrying that same “spring of 2025” end date. “Monday, March 25” for a lane crossover on I-481 southbound near the CSX railyard matches March 2024, with an end date of “end of November” that would have meant November 2024. A fourth, a ramp closure on Kirkville Road, is more recent (it dates to October 2025) but lists an end date of “early April 2026,” which is five months in the past. A fifth entry, describing a traffic pattern shift on East Glen and East Brighton avenues, dates to July and August of 2025 and describes a switch to a new alignment that NYSDOT’s later announcements show is now finished and superseded (see below). All five remain posted as if they might still apply.

The Six Closures, Confirmed

Here is what NYSDOT’s own advisory language says is actually closed this week, with each start date confirmed against a calendar:

– **East Colvin Street:** The on-ramp to I-81 northbound is closed, and the block between Garfield Avenue and Moore Avenue is down to one lane with a temporary signal. Both started at 7 a.m. Monday, July 6, 2026, for utility work. NYSDOT says both reopen in early October.
– **Court Street, between Sunset Avenue and Genant Drive:** Fully closed since Monday, March 16, 2026, while the state demolishes the Court Street Bridge over I-81 and builds a longer replacement. NYSDOT says the closure runs through November.
– **Exit 29S, the I-81 southbound ramp to I-481 South in the Town of Cicero:** Permanently closed since about 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, to make way for a new traffic pattern.
– **Fineview Place, between Renwick Avenue and Standart Street:** Permanently closed in both directions since 7 a.m. Wednesday, June 11, 2025. Its route is being absorbed into the future Business Loop 81.
– **Renwick Avenue, between Martin Luther King East and Van Buren Street:** Permanently closed in both directions since 7 a.m. Wednesday, June 4, 2025, for the same reason.
– **East Raynor Avenue, between Fineview Place and Henry Street:** Closed in both directions since June 11, 2025. NYSDOT says it reopens when Business Loop 81 northbound is complete. The most recent state statement CNY Signal could find addressing that stretch, a March 5, 2026 announcement, described Business Loop 81 northbound as not yet open. No newer confirmation of its status was available.

A $2.1 Billion Contract Just Started

These closures sit inside a much larger construction push. NYSDOT’s project page describes the current work as Phase 2, and the state awarded the first Phase 2 construction contract, worth $2.1 billion, to CNY Alliance on July 3, 2026. NYSDOT called it the largest and most complex construction contract in the department’s history. Under that contract, the state says it will rebuild roughly 15 lane miles of I-690 between Leavenworth Avenue and North Crouse Avenue, rehabilitate 25 local streets with new sewer and water lines, extend Pearl Street to Erie Boulevard, extend North Clinton Street to Butternut Street, replace the Butternut Street bridge and convert West Street into a pedestrian corridor. NYSDOT said the work was set to begin imminently.

The Interchange That Opened in June

Phase 2 followed the completion of a separate $366 million project rebuilding the interchanges where I-81 and I-481 meet on the north and south sides of the city: $226.5 million for the northern interchange and $140 million for the southern one. The state announced that work finished June 11, 2026, three years after construction began, and said “all major infrastructure” at the point where the future I-81 and future Business Loop 81 meet was open to traffic. An earlier release, from March 5, 2026, detailed one piece of that work directly: a new mainline connection letting drivers move from I-481 southbound onto I-81 southbound at highway speed, plus a new ramp from I-81 northbound to East Glen Avenue.

NYSDOT’s project materials do not list a single completion date for the full I-81 project. What they list is a start: Contract 6 work across I-690 and 25 city streets, layered on top of the six closures already running.