Highway study released

There's a need to build a major $1 billion-plus highway between Evansville and Indianapolis, according to a state study released last week. While the Indiana Department of Transportation has not ruled out other routes, the study is calling for a more direct connection, predicting an economic boom for southwest Indiana.\nA new-terrain highway through southwest Indiana would also complete an international trade corridor between Canada and Mexico through the Midwest, the report finds. The proposed project would link the I-64 highway just north of Evansville to I-465 south of Indianapolis. \nThe study is hardly finalized -- it won't be finished until the end of 2002.\nBut project manager Michael Grovak said researchers put more than 7,000 hours into the 59-page report, which he described as the "most important part of the study." \n"The purpose and need statement is like the foundation of a house," INDOT Commissioner Christine Klika said. "You have to take a great deal of care and effort to make sure the foundation of your study is well constructed."\nBy year's end, Grovak -- spokesman for Bernardin Lochmueller & Associates, the state's consultant -- said the list of prospective routes will be narrowed to no more than five. When the study is finished, state and federal officials expect to select a route from the 14 existing proposals.\n"We are right on schedule," Grovak said. "The timetable is to have construction around the end of this decade."\nThe study doesn't address the route the highway should take, but it will have an impact on deciding which routes would fulfill the highway's purpose. And the study largely focuses on the economic stress in southwest Indiana. \nThe draft notes the four counties with the highest poverty rates in the state are in the southwest, along with five of the eight highest unemployment rates. And it finds that Evansville has the least efficient connection to Indianapolis of any major Indiana city, leaving southwest Indiana with little access to jobs and airports.\nCritics favor linking the cities by upgrading existing roads -- specifically I-70 and U.S. 41 through Terre Haute. They worry about the environmental impact of building a new-terrain highway, which would necessitate the clearing of some forest land.\n"They're ignoring public input and just pushing for the new terrain route," Hoosier Environmental Council spokesman Andy Knott said. "They're not addressing the environmental cost."\nKnott said he isn't pleased with the study. \n"It's biased toward a new-terrain route," he said. "It's not a surprise, but they're not being fair to the other options."\nThe state has scheduled several public hearings on the draft purpose and need statement, the first of which will take place from 6 to 9:30 p.m. May 7 at Martinsville High School.