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Cancelling or postponing projects that make sense in order to fund ones that don’t.
Let’s just cancel or postpone projects to live within the budget of gas taxes received. Thank you.
INDOT is out of control, and Pressel is out of his depth as the legislative leader for infrastructure.
He’s the one that sponsored the bill to increase the speed limit on I-465 from 55 mph to 65 mph because he – and everyone else – couldn’t drive the speed limit. Maybe his hidden goal was to increase gas tax revenue?
We should have built/added ‘Commercial Vehicles 🚗 Only’ lanes years ago that parallel I-70 as a toll road. 20,000 LB +. It could have been set up 10 miles on both sides of I-465. Safer. $$$$. Not cars and smaller commercial trucks. Also a convenient way to weigh and inspect truckers and their loads.
Toll the downtown interstates for all semis using them to drive through Indianapolis between the hours of 7-9am and 4-6pm on weekdays.
Stop the Mid-States Corridor! The benefits aren’t worth the multi-billion dollar cost.
Brad, good idea but hasn’t Indiana eliminated or defunded the weigh stations?
It’s ignorant to blame Hybrids or Electrics for lost State revenue – the BMV charges an annual fee of $81 or $242 – that’s enough to cover $1157 to $6052 of lost gas station tax revenue. PLUS the electrics still pay tax on the electricity they use.
I agree. I am charged $225/yr extra for having a gas hybrid (not PHEV) to register my vehicle. It is most likely that gas only vehicles are getting more efficient, which is good for the climate. Indiana needs to determine the actual cause of the shortfall to determine how to fix the funding issue.
No Tolls on 70!!!!!!
Indiana has one of the highest gasoline taxes in the nation. WHERE IS THE MONEY GOING??
+1
+2
We are a state that foolishly wants gas taxes and tolls to fund 100% of road expenses and we don’t kick in enough from the general fund because we have an addiction to not collecting enough money spun as cutting taxes.
The choice is clear – pay more in taxes for better roads, or pay more to get car damage repaired from pot holes. Either way, you will pay. But a Legislature that claims there is plenty of money and can’t control the road industrial complex in this state is the root of the problem.
https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/state/state-road-taxes-funding/
All of you are such complainers! Gas taxes are user taxes. Thus, it doesn’t hit those who don’t have a car or who use public transportation to get around. That way those who don’t use a lot of gas on our roads, don’t have to pick up the tab for those who do.
That said, I like hearing road projects have been cancelled. I would love it if INDOT just took a breather with all the road construction which makes our city so difficult to navigate and is never ending. How many years has I-65 south of the city been under major construction? How many years until I-69 at I-465 gets done? It hasn’t helped with our traffic jams that’s for sure!
You’re still paying gas taxes even if you never drive. You think food gets to the grocery store for free?
INDOT is a master of building roads such that they have continual projects to work on. What they build doesn’t last through our winters, nor do roads hold up to the traffic numbers they see.
The construction zone speeding tickets are to be issued only when workers are present but there is no way to know when that is. These zones need to be signed with the excellent signs that say workers are present when flashing. The biggest issue is that if you actually slow down to no more than 10 mph over the posted construction speed limit you are often going to get run over by other vehicles and you actually fear for your life.
INDOT needs some serious investigative journalism and public accountability. Governments that can provide basic public services and infrastructure builds trust with its people. Instead, we have crumbling roads, an underwhelming vision for addressing planned growth and apparently no understanding or unified collaboration of how to properly fund one of our most basic needs. Why are Indiana’s roads so much worse than our neighboring states? It doesn’t make any sense.
INDOT likes to split up big projects into smaller chunks. It lets them avoid scrutiny and public input that a billion+ dollar project might get. It’s still a billion+ dollar project, but now it takes 5 years and costs 20% more, but their only job is to build roads and not economic development projects, so more economically desirable and reasonable alternatives never get studied.
The prefect example of this is the downtown Indy 65/70 reconstruction vs the proposal from the Rethink 65/70 group.
The Mid-States Corridor is Braun’s pet project to help his company lower their shipping costs. It’s a new four lane highway to connect Jasper to I-69. INDOT’s own studies don’t recommend the project and a recent poll found that 81% of people in the area don’t want it. I’ve travelled the current highway hundreds of times and have never sat in traffic. It is projected to decrease drive time by 2-3 minutes from Jasper to Indianapolis.
Agree. Why are we spending money on these things?
U.S. 40 parallels I 70 tolling I 70 would just divert traffic to U.S. 40 .
Can you imagine the traffic jams? That would be horrible and add 20-30 minutes onto a suburban commute.
Which would lead to Aaron Freeman demanding a third lane on Washington Street …
Everyone complains about our bad condition roads, and everyone complains about the construction projects on our roads. But everyone loves our roads once the construction is complete. INDOT only works on interstates and a few federal main highways, the cities and counties work on all the others. It’s never ending to maintain them and keep them safe, open and operating.
New construction on the Braun Corridor would be a worthless exercise that would take 50 years to financially justify, and it would have to have major repairs every 20 years during that 50.
The idea(I) of the ReThink fantasies downtown would be the larger waste and worthless implementation to satisfy only the local neighbors downtown, it would not help the other 99% of our driving population, nor would it ever become usable space for the pie in the sky alternate land use dreams. But it would win the award for the most expensive highway project in state history, that solved no traffic issues.
Camera tolls for semis could work on I70, but not on any small trucks and personal vehicles, and only if our legislature put the funds in INDOT maintenance accounts and not the general fund!
Nope. INDOT gets 62% of the gas taxes and they maintain all those state highways the cross cross the state. Go drive them sometime and see how nice they are.
https://indianacapitalchronicle.com/2025/01/28/indiana-lawmakers-turn-to-local-governments-in-quest-for-road-funding-boost/
Drive bumpy Hwy. 69 from south of Fort Wayne to Anderson. It’s a busy stretch. Deal with that and forget that southern corridor project.
What Bill D., said about the stretch of I-69 from Fort Wayne to Anderson is true. Drive over the bridges and expect to have your shocks tested.
Someone earlier mentioned, our roads are the worst of the Midwest yet our gas tax is the fourth highest in the nation. Indiana is the smallest in the Midwest, the math ain’t mathin’.
Maybe Indiana should seek advice from states around us as to how our roads could be equally as good as theirs. Just ask truckers who drive through this state on the interstates, how they know they’re in Indiana.
Maybe INDOT could use these funds to upgrade the interstates on the NW side of Indy. These roads and ramps are so antiquated. I-65 north of 465 to Zionsville is only 4 lanes, 465 to 865 is a two lane ramp so dangerous, these need immediate attention. Also maybe INDOT could fix all the street lighting on our interstates and interchanges. Entire sections of street lighting are not working on I-65 by White River, downtown and I-465.