State and federal officials last summer broke ground on the I-81 project in Syracuse. Now, seven months to the day, officials gave area residents a glimpse of what the city could look like without the viaduct.

"We’ve always had a massive separation between those three major communities, between the university, downtown and the south side," explained Joe Driscoll, I-81 project director for the city. "So a primary goal in looking at all this design and all these possibilities is to make it one cohesive city."

Years in the making, the I-81 Community Grid Vision Plan was released to the public Wednesday morning.

"Simple adjustments that will help the streets in Syracuse act more as a grid in response to the changes," Driscoll said. "We’ve kind of called this, like, the picture on the front of the puzzle box. As we look what our priorities are in development moving forward, this can be the greater vision that we look for certain areas to focus on and find those pieces to put them into place.”

For years, the I-81 Removal Vision Plan team gathered feedback from the community. Even with the plan made public, that’s not going to stop.

“We’ll continue to refine it and keep it going as we go along," said Driscoll.

The public can provide feedback in two open houses scheduled for next week. They are 5 to 7 p.m. Feb. 27 in Dr. King Elementary, and 5 to 7 p.m. Feb. 28 in Lincoln Middle School on James Street.

“We want this whole project to be guided by the voices of the community as much as possible," Driscoll said.