Hoosiers hold protest rally against I-69

INDIANAPOLIS -- Business owners, farmers, students, and other opponents of a new-terrain route for Interstate 69 rallied Friday to send a message they're still fighting the highway.\nProtesters, including self-styled circus performers, held signs protesting the new-terrain route, passed out stickers and cheered a slew of speakers. Three tractors drove through downtown Indianapolis with signs condemning the route.\n"Grass roots political pressure can stop it," Bloomington City Councilman Andy Ruff told more than 150 people gathered on the east steps of the Statehouse. "We will absolutely win."\nThey face long odds, however. The Federal Highway Administration in March endorsed the state's choice of a new-terrain route to connect Evansville and Indianapolis.\nBoth Democratic Gov. Joe Kernan and Republican gubernatorial nominee Mitch Daniels support the new-terrain route over upgrades to existing portions of \nI-70 and U.S. 41. Libertarian candidate Kenn Gividen, who attended the rally, has said he wants to use money allocated to expand I-69 to improve existing roads.\nRuff and other opponents said other options still remain. They vowed to keep fighting the new-terrain route and educating their communities to gain broader support to halt it.\nMembers of the Bloomington Circus Collective, a group of artists who rally for environmental and other causes, played bongo drums, blew bubbles and held up giant puppets.\n"This highway is not built yet," said Robin Tala, circus collective member. "It is not done!"\nBusiness owner Brenda Buster of Martinsville said she and her husband would lose their auto repair clinic if the I-69 extension was built as planned.\n"Life as we know it and 20 years of accomplishments will be gone in a flash," she said.\nUnder plans announced last year, the Indiana Department of Transportation estimated the I-69 project would cost about $1.78 billion and take eight to 14 years to build. It would be part of a larger I-69 expansion connecting the Canadian and Mexican borders and dubbed the "NAFTA Superhighway" after the North American Free Trade Agreement.\nINDOT Commissioner J. Bryan Nicol said in a statement that final alignment work for each of the six sections of the Indiana extension has entered its seventh month of work.\n"I respect the feelings of those who do not agree with the project and encourage these individuals to help us as we complete the final alignment work for I-69," Nicol said.