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Meanwhile, the Southport Road exit sits as it has for a year, continually unfinished, fouling the only way across the White River in Perry Township.
I-69 south of Bloomington carries less than 8,000 cars per day in many cases. Drive down there – nearly empty. A major misallocation of capital by the state, even if there are some benefits to the Martinsville to Indy segment – the only one that had a positive return in the initial study of the project.
Indiana’s highway network, with the completion of the southwest leg of I-69, is now fully built-out. Any additional highway lane mileage will likely have a negative ROI from this point forward. I’m sure it sounds like this is a broken record, but I think it’s time for INDOT to shift directions and focus on other modes of transportation now. Put the highway system in maintenance mode and implement safety upgrades, but Hoosiers without cars or who struggle to drive (kids, lower income adults, persons with disabilities, the elderly) are largely locked out of economic and social opportunities and we need to ensure that they have the ability to participate in the economy.
Take a look at the Mid-States Corridor proposal. Or the guy who wants to turn US 30 into a freeway. The demand for these projects will never end.
Can you assess the value of a 1000 mile federal highway designed to run from Detroit to Houston based on a 22 mile segment in Indiana?
The largest problem I can tell with I-69 is that we aren’t properly funding it at the federal level.
Interstate highways get a 90% match from the Federal Highway Administration, compared to transit projects which typically only get a 50% match from a much smaller pot of money. The idea that FHWA isn’t adequately funding highway projects is laughable.
The Mid-States Corridor is a terrible proposal. Half a billion dollars to shave 8 minutes off of end-to-end travel time. That project is simply designed to keep the contracting lobbyists happy.
Right now it’s a highway from Union City TN to Port Huron MI.
And it still needs a new bridge over the Mississippi River at Arkansas City plus 600 miles of planned and unbuilt road between Memphis and Houston.
Yeah, I was surprised until I looked into it too. It’s going nowhere in other states because that 90% match hasn’t been appropriated.
By the way, I-69 won’t be done with this project. We still have hundreds of millions of dollars to spend building a new bridge across the Ohio at Evanville.
Perhaps the State can now widen and upgrade I-65 between Columbus and Franklin. Currently an embarrassment to the State.
Not just there. It should be at least 6 lanes all the way from the Ohio River to Merrillville. Likewise I-70 from Terre Haute to Richmond.
I’m absolutely thrilled that the interstate has been completed. Trying to get home to Evansville from Indy, after living here for 30 yrs is so much easier than it used to be.
Boondoggle. Too much time, money, and manpower for something that’ll have very little benefit.
FYI to all these negative comments, folks said the same thing about the Indy to Michigan I69 contruction in the 1970’s. Once opened and done it’s a major traffic route!
And commerce. Economic gains take time.
Yeah, Marcia. It will take a while for those gas stations to get built.
I’m glad to have this done. I was hoping to live long enough to see it completed. Just one more day to go!
Around 2005 or so I had someone show up at my door to sign a petition to stop the I-69 project. At that time I was driving to Evansville and back several times a month. Told the young man, who probably still lives in his parent’s basement, you’ve knocked on the wrong door and I wouldn’t be signing his petition.
Who knows, maybe they only needed one more signature to stop it. It’s much like voting, never discount “one” vote!
The State would’ve been better off just spending $4B on infrastructure within Indianapolis, Bloomington, & Evansville.
Federal funding for interstates cannot be allocated to local infrastructure projects.
We’re actually celebrating the corrupt contractors who milked the system for 16 years. Insane.