State officials narrow routes for I-69

EVANSVILLE -- The route that environmentalists have backed for the Interstate 69 extension between Indianapolis and Evansville is not among the five that state officials said Wednesday they preferred.\nThat route would follow I-70 from Indianapolis to Terre Haute and then use portions of the existing four-lane U.S. 41 south to Evansville, requiring the least amount of new road construction.\nEnvironmentalists contend it would be less expensive and do less damage to farmland and forests than the others.\nAlthough at an estimated average $930 million it is the cheapest, and it would require the most businesses to move and rated poorly when factors such as reducing travel time and spurring economic growth in southwestern Indiana were considered, state highway Commissioner J. Bryan Nicol said.\n"We could not in good conscious take that one forward," Nicol said. "We have to look at the entire picture. We're presenting the entire picture to the public."\nState officials on Wednesday released a detailed study of the five corridors proposed last year for the highway. The study looks at factors such as environmental impact, cost, economic growth, and traffic-related issues such as travel time and freight movement.\nIt then identified 12 possible routes and designated five of them as preferred routes.\nThe announcement drew immediate criticism from the Hoosier Environmental Council.\n"What they said in their presentation today was that (U.S.) 41 is still the cheapest and the least environmentally destructive route, so it's absurd that they are still trying to eliminate that route," said Andy Knott, the group's director of air and energy policy.\n"They have all these other criteria by which they measure things that are biased toward building a new-terrain highway," he said.\nIn comparison to the route supported by Knott, the most expensive route listed as preferred -- estimated to cost $1.74 billion -- goes from Evansville to Washington, then to outside Bloomington, where it follows State Road 37 into Indianapolis.\nOther proposed routes were eliminated because of potential environmental damage to natural resources such as the Beanblossom Bottoms Nature Preserve northwest of Bloomington and Tincher Special Area of the Hoosier National Forest west of Bedford.\nFederal law requires a 30-day comment period on the study. However, Nicol said 90 days would be provided for the public response.\nThe Hoosier Environmental Council has pushed for a 120-day public comment period. It also said the state was moving too quickly by scheduling public hearings on Aug. 19, 20 and 21.\n"They just got through saying this was the most comprehensive and complete study ever done. How can they expect the public to digest a 1,000-page document in less than 20 days?" Knott said.\nThe public comments will be reviewed and a final route will then likely be selected by the end of the year, Nicol said.\nJohn Moore, an attorney with the Environmental Law and Policy Center of the Midwest, said he hoped the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would take a close look at the draft environmental impact statement.\nThe agency criticized such a report on the I-69 project done in 1996. Among other things, it said the state did not address the project's potential for causing sprawl-type development or its potential for drawing existing development away from the U.S. 41 corridor.\nMoore said it was too early to tell how the EPA would react to this report, but said, "INDOT has invented a lot of fictional purposes and imaginary needs for an all-new highway, and I think that is its biggest weakness."\nHowever, James G. Newland, executive director of the I-69 Mid-Continent Highway Coalition in Indianapolis, said he trusts the work done by the consultants and hopes construction starts soon.\nInterstate 69 is "the answer really to the economic future of southern Indiana," Newland said. "I'm anxious they get working on this, so we can get it started and get this thing finished."\nThe proposed connection is part of the national I-69 proposed NAFTA Superhighway that would link Canada and Mexico. The highway already runs from the Canadian border at Port Huron, Mich., to Indianapolis.\nFrom Evansville, it is planned to go south through Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas.\nIndiana is also funding a separate study with Kentucky to develop an I-69 route that would link Evansville and Kentucky over the Ohio River.\nAssociated Press writer Mike Smith contributed to this story from Indianapolis.\nOn the Net: I-69 Official Web site \nIndiana Department of Transportation