The Facts About Route 3c for I-69 - The Proposal for Perry Township

.....
click here to return to February index

The opinions expressed in these articles and features are those of their author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of McANA or the opinion of its Directors or Officers.

The Facts About Route 3c for I-69
The Proposal for Perry Township
by Pat Andrews
[Vice-President of McANA]

In early January Governor O’Bannon picked his preferred option for the possible extension of I-69 from Indianapolis to Evansville. The Board of Directors of McANA immediately called upon the Governor to rescind his recommendation. As we speak with people, including elected officials, we find that there are some wide-spread misconceptions about I-69. These run the gamut from the supposed benefits of I-69, to the advantages of one route over another, and even to the details of what is and is not included in the plan for Route 3 c, the Governor’s preferred option.

To increase the chances that our community can engage in a much needed, high quality discussion of the I-69 issues and how the evolving plans could affect the residents, taxpayers, and neighborhoods of Marion County, we will publish a series of articles in Common Ground and on our website (www.mcanaindy.org), that lay out the facts. To kick things off, we will begin with what really has been proposed for Route 3c running through Perry Township.

As most residents of the metro area know, I-69 currently enters Marion County from the northwest, near Castleton, and ends at I-456. All potential routes for the extension of I-69 assume that the freeway would no longer end at I-465, but rather, follow along I-456 to the south and then around towards the west.

The plans at this point are intentionally vague as to the exact path of a new freeway. What is described is a 2000-foot wide swath within which the roadbed would be constructed. If Route 3c makes it through the first round of Federal review, which it failed to do in 1996, and if it survives anticipated legal challenges, INDOT would begin to do detailed planning, along with more public input. This stage is more than likely a few years away.

Here, then, is what is currently being proposed. And keep in mind that it all involves a 2000 foot swath within which I-69 might be built.

With Route 3c, I-69 would split off I-465 just west of the existing interchange at Harding Street / SR37 in Perry Township. The distance between the Harding Street / SR 37 / I-465 interchange and the new I-69 and I-456 interchange would be about half a mile. INDOT’s own guidelines call for spacing interchanges at least one mile apart, for safety reasons. They appear to have chosen not to follow that particular guideline in this case.

At the current level of planning, the 2000 foot swath of I-69 goes straight south and hooks up with the existing SR 37 as its centerline. The centerline mostly follows SR 37 all the way out of Marion County.

There are only two interchanges proposed by INDOT, one at I-465 and one at County Line Road. In addition, there is one overpass at Wicker Road. All other cross streets in the 4 mile stretch of SR 37 would be dead ended.

That includes Southport Road, which is the pivotal element of the region’s future outer loop, designed to alleviate congestion on I-465. Southport is critical because it is the only street in the County that crosses over the White River south of I-465. But, INDOT’s plan calls for it to just stop at the new I-69. Other streets that now act as important elements of east-west traffic flow that would also be dead ended include, Thompson, Edgewood, Banta, and Epler.

As for critical north-south traffic flow, SR 37 and Bluff Road are immensely important. Bluff would not pick up any commuter traffic to or from the new I-69, according to the plan. And SR 37 would simply cease to function as a collector-distributor system within Perry Township.

The SR 37 corridor of Perry Township is booming with new homes and businesses. Residents depend upon the flow east and west, north and south, to go about their daily lives. This flow is some of what binds them as a community. Southern Dunes, for example, is one of the two largest residential developments in Marion County and thousands of people will live there when it is complete. Right now these families rely on Southport Road and SR 37 to get them to school, to work, to shopping and other daily activities. Route 3c, I-69 to Evansville, would dramatically change all of that.

An important geographic feature of the area of SR 37 south of I-465 is the Perry Wellfield Protection District that supplies drinking water to a large region both in and out of the County. Any incursion by I-69 lends a risk that this aquifer could be contaminated by a hazardous material spill. Although INDOT considers public drinking water supplies to be important features to be protected and avoided, if possible, by I-69, they failed to even note the existence of Perry’s Wellfield.

And none of us will escape paying the $1. 7 billion price tag. I-69 would be paid from gasoline taxes that some estimate will go up 15 cents per gallon to pay for the Governor’s preferred option.