Posted on 02/10/2011 4:26:48 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Even with work on the Interstate 69 extension proceeding in earnest downstate, environmental and citizens groups are suing to stop construction of the 142-mile link between Evansville and Indianapolis.
The complaint filed this week in U.S. District Court by Hoosier Environmental Council and Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads seeks to overturn a permit the Army Corps of Engineers issued for the $3 billion project.
The groups say the permit authorized the Indiana Department of Transportation “to destroy valuable natural resources” by rerouting streams and filling wetlands in the path of the new highway in Daviess and Greene counties.
They contend the Army Corps of Engineers never completed an independent alternatives analysis for the route, such as improving existing U.S. 41 and I-70. Such a route would cost $1 billion less and reduce environmental damage by 60 percent, they claim.
“If our action is successful, the state of Indiana will have to consider alternatives to the chosen route that have less environmental impact on rivers and wetlands,” said Tim Maloney, senior policy director of HEC.
The odds of halting work on the new terrain route appear steep, however. INDOT’s contractors have completed a 1.7- mile stretch of I-69 northeast of Evansville. It’s part of a $700 million segment from Evansville to Crane that’s scheduled for completion next year.
INDOT officials said they had yet to review the lawsuit and declined comment.
An opponent of such a project might use a strategy such as seeking a temporary restraining order, although “you’d have to really show injury” in federal court to succeed, said John Krauss, a professor of public and environmental affairs and adjunct professor of law at IUPUI.
The controversial I-69 extension faces other challenges down the road, including a lack of funding for the section between the Bloomington area and Indianapolis, and for much of the stretch north of Crane. The southernmost section is being funded in part from proceeds of the $3.8 billion lease of the Indiana Toll Road.
INDOT has been trying to stretch its funding by deferring some overpasses and rest stops, and has invited contractors to offer bids using asphalt as well as the concrete that’s traditionally considered superior for new-terrain interstates. Other ideas include thinner pavement in shoulders and passing lanes.
HEC and Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads also say the new-terrain route poses particular environmental dangers in the hilly region near Bloomington. Last March, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency told INDOT that “streams and karst features are resources of concern.” Karst topography is a landscape shaped by the dissolution of a layer or layers of soluble bedrock.
“Construction may have started, but it is unlikely I-69 will ever be finished unless INDOT diverts a major share of the state’s dwindling highway dollars away from badly needed road and bridge repairs around the state,” CARR president Thomas Tokarski said in a statement.
The greater part of concern over stream bed diversion has a lot to do with the nature of the karstlands over which this road is routed anyway. Nothing new there.
Every now and then I point out in a thread related to Central Indiana that there's a crowd who seek to maintain the pristine nature of South Central Indiana by prohibiting any further development outside of the small urban areas encircling Brown County!
Here they are again demanding justice because somebody is getting a new road. They don't care who its for or what good it will serve. They just don't want it or any other road ~ unless you can build one to a new boat ramp on Lake Monroe.
They demand a healthy supply of plump bunny rabbits and tasty rats and mice, and presume the highway will endanger the flow!
I used to live in Indiana. I-69 would be a Godsend for Evansville’s economy. As it stands Evansville is hard to get to from Indy. You have to drive over Hell’s half acre to get there. BTW, they had this environmental “argument” 15 years ago. I thought they resolved it years ago. Without the whining it would have already been built.
I live in Greene County near the Crane Naval Station and I can assure you that this road is a done deal. The feds want to make it easier and safer to truck explosives in and out of the base and they are more than likely the ones who determined the route. These lawsuits are busy work and they will be thrown away. This route goes through about 3/4 of a mile from my house. The envirowackos in Bloomington think they can stop the road, yeh, not gonna happen.
The busy bodies in Bloomington are a bunch of disingenuous jerks that are operating off the idea that they have what they want, and don't want to let anyone else into their club. They have a house right on the lakefront, but no way are they going to let anyone else do it. They have easy access to Indianapolis, but they don't going to let those rednecks down in the south have that same access. Screw those clowns. I'm sick of them all.
I agree. Greene County and the surrounding area absolutely depend on Crane base for our economic survival. Crane comes up for review on the base closure list almost every time. They stay in business because of the ordinance they manufacture. When the feds say “get a better road” then by golly we get a better road or the next time they do BRAC we could wind up on the chopping block. That would bring economic devastation to at least 3 counties.
Bloomington morons don’t think that would affect them but I’m pretty sure it would be very bad for them also. They are so stupidly self righteous and convinced of their own intellectual superiority that they don’t realize they would be destroying their economy too. They drove out Otis Elevator, RCA, Westinghouse and dozens of others with outrageous property taxes, business taxes, and enviro laws and now they want to destroy the rest of the area economically to protect a bunch of snakes i would shoot for fun. I don’t think so. This road will be within a mile of my house. Do I like that? Not much, but they could have taken my house so I can live with it.
I despise people like that: Plenty for me, but not for thee...
Once built the sound was devastating ~ someday I'll figure out how to get even.
my house is at one end of my thirty acres and the entire south half is wooded. the new road will be maybe a couple of hundred? yards (not sure about that) past my south property line. We will hear a bit of it but my brother is much closer and he will have a view of the road. He doesn’t like it one bit but figures at least he gets to keep his house. He is already planning that sound barrier.
I lived next to I-270 in Gaithersburg, MD for 8 years. I got used to the sound real fast, or else I would have died from lack of sleep.
I have heard that argument from the beginning. I have no doubt there will some benefit to E-Ville but friends, E-ville has direct interstate access to St. Louis, Nashville, Louisville, and Cincinnati. If they can't make it with those cities, Indy will make little additional impact.
Also ask yourself what happens to University Southern Indiana and Evansville University when students in those areas have direct interstate access to Indiana University.
Lastly. After a fair amount of thought on the subject I have come to the conclusion we have too much concrete on the ground. We keep building new roads but we do not have the funds to care for the roads we already have. Something has to give. I see too many hi-ways running parallel to interstates. U.S. 31 and I-65 comes to mind. Maybe it's time to think about decommissioning the roads that are being "replaced". We can't afford to repair the concrete we have, why are we laying more?
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