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The Pork Barrel Polka

 Indianapolis-to-Evansville (I-69) Highway (Indiana)

$680 million

"Hundreds of millions of federal tax dollars that Indiana could use for other pressing transportation needs are at stake. So are wetlands, forests, farms and communities whose value only begins to be expressed in dollars. Tempting as it is to put the I-69 battle in the past, Indiana's future demands that it grind on."

Indianapolis Star editorial; January 10, 2003
The proposed 140-mile all-new I-69 extension would go from Indianapolis to Evansville, Indiana at a cost of more than $1.7 billion. Federal taxpayers would pay 80 percent, or $1.4 billion. The highway is one segment of the proposed 1,000-mile "Mid-Continent NAFTA Superhighway" linking Canada with Mexico, which would cost taxpayers between $6 and $10 billion.

Indiana residents do not support the new highway. An unprecedented coalition of farmers, conservationists, local business people, elected officials, and taxpayer groups are opposing it. Sixteen Indiana newspapers - including those in Indianapolis, Gary, and South Bend - have editorialized against it.

Green Scissors Proposal

Block federal funding for the all-new I-69 extension. Instead upgrade existing highways, saving approximately $680 million.

Current Status

In Summer 2002, Indiana released the draft Environmental Impact Statement for the I-69 corridor. In November, the coalition fighting the new terrain I-69 presented the state with 16,000 comments from people opposed to the new highway, and 138,000 petition signatures. On January 9, 2003, Governor Frank O'Bannon announced he preferred the same new-terrain route for I-69 that he and the ten years. Governor O'Bannon is spending $12.1 million for studies in an effort to justify the same boondoggle route panned by NBC News as a "Fleecing of America" and opposed by local and state elected officials. INDOT expects to finish the first of two environmental studies on the route late this year.

Project Hurts Taxpayers

At $1.7 billion in estimated total cost, Governor O'Bannon's preferred route is one of the most expensive options for extending I-69 in Indiana. An independent analysis found that other, far less costly routes would provide virtually identical transportation and economic benefits to Indiana.

There is a much less expensive and destructive alternative to an all-new highway - the "Common Sense" route using Interstate 70 and an upgraded U.S. 41. This would save taxpayers at least $680 million. Travel time from Evansville to Indianapolis would be only ten minutes longer than travel time on the new road.

Project Hurts the Environment

The project would destroy almost 7,000 acres of farmland and forests, more than any other project in Indiana, and lead to sprawl development. Indiana is already losing farmland faster than any other major farm state except Texas.

The highway would traverse sensitive karst terrain and damage large wetlands. It would bisect the new Patoka National Wetlands Project and Wildlife Refuge, home to bald eagles and other threatened and endangered species.

Contacts

Andy Knott, Hoosier Environmental Council, (317) 685-8800
Sandra Tokarski, Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads, (812) 825-9555
John Moore, Environmental Law and Policy Center, (312) 795-3706
David Hirsch, Friends of the Earth, (202) 783-7400 x215

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