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Southern Indiana officials celebrate I-69 extension work

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Some southern Indiana officials celebrated the start of construction work on a hotly-contested section of the Interstate 69 extension project.

Several government and business leaders participated in a groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday for the 27-mile stretch of I-69 from near the Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center to Indiana 37 south of Bloomington.

Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce president Christy Gillenwater told The Herald-Times that she believes the highway will help add jobs to the area and can't wait for it to reach Bloomington.

Construction is under way on the highway from Evansville to near Crane, but environmentalists have continued fighting the route picked near Bloomington.

Opponent Thomas Tokarski said protesters missed the groundbreaking ceremony because highway officials kept it quiet to give a false impression about public support.

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  • FINALLY
    Larry is absolutely right. With this comes a better infrastructure for both commerce, industry, tourism and ease of travel through the state. I live in Southern Indiana and support this forward thinking progress albeit late
  • Keep on building!
    This is great news. I always enjoy seeing how many negative comments are always posted regarding I69. Try driving down SR67 and see all the struggling small towns. I69 will bring distribution parks creating thousands of jobs. Stop worring about the costs and be thankful our state is progressing ahead for the stability of our future. They can't build this fast enough!!
  • I-69 Extension
    The only reason this got pushed through is because money talks. As usual, Gov. Daniels completely ignored all critics and opinions which were opposed to his own. He never hears anything he doesn't want to hear.
  • out of date
    Travel the country, Indiana is so far behind in infrastructure. If this I-69 corridor was finished, the state would be the hub of transportation between Canada and Mexico with warehousing, etc throughout the state. why the delay???
  • BLIGHT
    Great more miles of billboard blight in Southern Indiana. Look at Seymour and other towns to see the future.

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    1. Doug Henning!

    2. These guy were thugs — they grew up in freaking Haughville! Smh, sigh. If the mayor needs/wants "quality" Black Hoosiers who are NOT corrupt, give me a call — I know plenty. Land bank info here - http://www.kubepharm.com/indylandbank/IndyLandBank.html

    3. Magician and illusionist!

    4. The basic idea of nice apartments with parking and retail is a good one, but this design seems overwhelmingly big/tall for Broad Ripple. The size could be disguised a bit with lots of big trees/landscaping, but the complex is too massive to blend in easily. That section of canal between College and Westfield will also need to be upgraded on both sides. Nice apartments facing onto a nice promenade with shade trees/plantings could bring together the canal towpath/Monon recreation, the outdoor seating at existing restaurants, and this project into something that upgrades the whole area. A plan for the whole stretch makes more sense than facing nice new housing onto what looks like a ditch. Is there a plan? Does the public have input? Who pays? The apartment idea seems to be reasonable, but Whole Foods is not a good idea for appropriate retail. Besides the store being physically too big, there are already Fresh Market at 54xCollege and Whole Foods in Nora for fancy groceries. Good Earth and Kroger are within walking distance of the Shell site. There are at least 7 grocery stores within a safe bike ride. Whole Foods would add nothing but traffic congestion. This design is on the right track, but there needs to be more work done to ensure that it blends in with and enhances the existing community. A project that large will set a tone for that whole part of town. It could be a real asset, but only if done right.

    5. I did not move to Zionsville to live in Carmel. This and the subsequent developments to follow will ensure a vanilla uniformity of strip malls and apartment buildings as we seek to bring our town down to the least common denominator. We were warned before recent elections that pro-development council members would make sure their friends (landowners and developers) would be able to make their millions off of the exploitation of Zionsville. Why in God's name would we sell out the best preserved small town in the State of Indiana?

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