Tuesday, October 09, 2012

Is Lack Of Funding To Complete I-69 A Good Thing?

Last weekend, the Star reported that Major Moves funding will run about before the final legal of the I-69 extension to Evansville can be undertaken from Indianapolis to Bloomington. A Star editorial today agrees with Indianapolis southsiders who think that's a good thing. The highway is projected to be completed from Evansville to Bloomington by the end of 2014, but there is no foreseeable funding for the $1 billion the final leg of the highway will cost to build. Because state highway planners wanted to reroute the current path of Indiana 37, which is already 4-laned, hundreds of acres of additional land would be required that would have displaced dozens of homes and businesses and at least two churches. Perry Township on the City's southside was alone expected to lose $330 million in taxable property that would be required to construct a new interchange planned for the rerouting of the highway. My prediction is that a proposal will be put forward to toll the Evansville to Bloomington leg of the highway to pay for the final leg of I-69 to Indianapolis. At any rate, perhaps INDOT can finally finish the half-completed bypass around Terre Haute connecting I-70 to U.S. 41 that has deliberately been stalled by the Daniels administration for the past 8 years now that the alternative route from Indianapolis to Evansville has been successfully defeated.

5 comments:

Paul K. Ogden said...

I am all for the I-69 extension. What I don't understand is why they simply didn't have it come off I-70 instead of I-465 where it ends up taking a lot more expensive property and is more disruptive. Maybe that requires too much backtracking to hit Bloomington, I don't know.

Jeff Cox said...

I-69 to Evansville needed to come from I-465 to create the hypotenuse that makes the trip a straight shot, which is the reason the I-70 to US-41 proposal was unacceptable. The state also wanted Indiana University and Bloomington to have interstate access.

Citizen Kane said...

That was the problem with I-69 all along - there was no money. The fact that even with the Major Moves theft, there isn't enough money to complete this interstate shows what a fraud it was from the beginning.

Just as with everything else, if we haven't figured out how to fund basic maintenance of the infrastructure we have, we sure don't need to be building more roads. It is foolhardy and doomed for failure.

Jeff Cox said...

The I-69 extension has been needed for 30 years. It counts as necessary infrastructure.

varangianguard said...

But, what happens when one reaches Evansville? Nothing. I-69 does not enter Kentucky.