INDIANAPOLIS -- Environ-mentalists are urging Gov. Frank O'Bannon and transportation officials to choose a less expensive route for a proposed Indianapolis-to-Evansville highway, citing the need to save money and minimize harm to surrounding land.\nActivists from the Hoosier Environmental Council Wednesday said state officials should select a route that expands existing highways, rather than building a new interstate through undeveloped farmland.\nThe Indiana Department of Transportation is weighing several routes to extend Interstate 69 from Indianapolis to southwestern Indiana. Among the proposals is a route farther east that would run the highway through largely rural territory.\nCritics of I-69 said the project should be reviewed in light of the state's budget crisis. They are pushing the agency to adopt what they insist is a cheaper route that follows Interstate 70 and U.S. 41 and would be less damaging to the environment.\n"No one predicted this budget crisis two years ago," said Bruce McCallister, a resident of Owen County in south-central Indiana. By considering more expensive routes, INDOT "is committing us to expenditures for 30 years down the road, and who can predict what shape we'll be in then?"\nAndy Knott, air and energy policy director for the environmental group, said the state's proposed rural route is "the poster child for fiscal irresponsibility, and the governor has done nothing to reel in INDOT's infatuation with this costly and destructive project."
\nO'Bannon's office referred questions to INDOT. Agency spokesman Roger Manning said that five routes, including the one preferred by environmentalists, were "still being given full and fair consideration."\nA final decision on the path for I-69 is expected this year, Manning said.\nActivists also questioned why O'Bannon did not reduce INDOT's budget as much as those of other state agencies when he outlined $109 million in cuts last week. They said spending at INDOT was clipped by just $41,000.\nTransportation officials insist INDOT was treated the same as other agencies. It has also cut its operating budget by 7 percent and out-of-state travel by half, Manning said.
