The area where the armory is now was a swamp. That much is true.
No, not according to this article.
Interesting. Where do you get your information from?
I have seen dozens of excavations in various areas downtown and never seen one where there is water 5 feet from street level. Most were in the Onondaga Creek bedrock valley, unlike where the tunnel is proposed.
Check the map on page 3 of this document to learn more about that.
https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2000/0139/report.pdf
For a very specific example, there was an excavation at the Weighlock Building in particular that went well below 10 feet that had no water in it. This goes back to when they were doing renovations on the building a long time ago...maybe 20 or 30 years. What about
all the tunnels underground downtown connecting the PSB, the Civic Center, the War Memorial, etc? All the buildings with basements in the area? Are they all pumping water out to keep things dry?