What Can You Do About I-69 ?

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What Can You Do About I-69 ?
by John Braun

INDOT is conducting public meetings, 5 to 9:30 P.M. on August 19th in Terre Haute at South High School, the 20th in Bloomington at North High School and the 21st in Evansville at Harrison High School, for comments of their recently completed DEIS study. Those in Marion County neighborhoods who are opposed to new terrain alternatives are encouraged to show up and give your 2-minutes worth, because INDOT has now put the U.S. 41/I-70 alternative on their non-preferred list of routes. It does not matter that consistently, 80% of public meeting verbal input supports U.S. 41/I-70 and that, according to INDOT's own I-69 consultants study report, it would be the least costly with the least environmental effect on wetlands, farmland, forest and endangered species. Other new terrain corridors being considered by INDOT would only be 12 miles shorter than using U.S. 41 and I-70. It is now obvious, to even the uneducated observer, that INDOT is bent on providing an interstate connection close to Bloomington and counties in central Indiana.

I believe the Tier 1 DEIS report has been compiled to meet the INDOT preferred route choice, not the other way around as required by law. It boils down to the same old "common sense" question. Do Hoosiers want to waste hundreds of millions of tax dollars and thousands of acres of farm and forestland to save 12 miles or approximately 15 minutes travel time to Evansville? One might believe that the answer for this state, whose budget is deep in the red, has to be NO. INDOT would like you to believe, that the federal government is paying for 80% of the build cost. Whoa, not so fast. That is a problem because virtually all the federal funds spoken about in that 80% will come from Indiana's federal gas tax distribution money that can and should be spent on other more worthwhile projects. Projects such as fixing existing roads, light rail, or an improved bus system. In plain English, the bulk of the federal highway funds required to construct this I-69 highway extension will likely come from Indiana's annual allocation of transportation funds distributed by the US Department of Transportation according to the formulas specified in the TEA 21 law. There is no federal I-69 "pot of gold" just waiting for Indiana to make up its mind on the route. That fact should be getting the attention of major city government leaders from all over this state. The bottom line is, this project will use federal tax dollars we need for other, more pressing transportation needs.

In addition, what about the maintenance costs? Is the federal government going to pay for that too? I hardly think so. Hoosier taxpayers will be footing the bill directly for the State Police to patrol and INDOT crews to maintain the highway, stretching the Indiana fiscal treasury deficit even further.

INDOT's Commissioner and the Governor want to take the route through the Washington, IN area and past Crane Naval Warfare Center, apparently, to meet the State goal of maximizing urban sprawl to gain maximum economic development. By example, look at the I-65 highway extension from Indy to Gary. That mostly rural section of I-65 brought lots of fast food restaurants and motels to the edge of farm towns and sprawled West Lafayette eastwardly, almost without end. The city of Lebanon was divided in half with the I-65 highway “improvement.” Shouldn’t we learn from past mistakes and not reproduce them with a new terrain I-69?

Indianapolis, Marion County neighborhoods on the south side, most notably Sunshine Gardens, will not benefit from SR 37 being turned into a freeway. Three of the five DEIS preferred routes will divide and destroy neighborhoods east and west of SR 37 (the new I-69). Decatur and Perry Townships will suffer irreparable harm as they are disenjoined from the free flow of the City of Indianapolis neighborhoods. But the folks at INDOT want you to think of all the new jobs that this highway will create with fast food restaurants, cross dock truck warehouses, and gravel, sand and barrow pit operations all the way to Bloomington. Where is the “common sense” in those routes?

Now is the time to show up at these public meetings before it is too late. Your input could be greatly appreciated by the folks at INDOT as they are still not quite certain how to route this new trade corridor from Mexico to Port Huron, MI. Come to any of the three scheduled meetings and give the folks at INDOT your opinion for their record. Sorry, no meetings are scheduled in or near the city of Indianapolis. If you cannot personally attend any of these meetings, please write letters to Mike Grovak (the official recipient of public comments), Bernardin Lochmeuller and Assoc., 6200 Vogel Road, Evansville, Indiana 47715.

The date of Nov. 7th is the final deadline for Tier 1 DEIS public comment.

For the published DEIS report and more meeting information see www.i69indyevn.org/. For opposition opinion see www.carri69.org and www.elpc.org