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For Bob Koch, chairman of Evansville-based Koch Enterprises, Interstate 69 has been a 40-year project.
The business leader remembers advocating for the Evansville-to-Indianapolis highway when Republican Bob Orr was governor in the 1980s. And that was at least 10 years after the 157.8-mile-long northern portion of the highway—from Indianapolis to Fort Wayne and then the Michigan state line—was completed in 1971.
But it would take decades of discussion for construction on the southern portion to get underway in 2008.
“Probably 30-plus years ago, I went on one of my first trips to Washington, D.C., to testify to a House Committee on Public Works and Transportation on the value that I-69 could bring to the Midwest,” Koch said.
Four years after construction started, the first three sections opened. This week, the final section fully opened from Martinsville to Indianapolis.
Lloyd Winnecke, CEO of Evansville Regional Economic Partnership and a former Evansville mayor, spoke with Inside INdiana Business last week in anticipation of the milestone event.
“There will be the biggest smiles on more faces than probably anything that any of us have seen in a long time. There are prominent business leaders and regional leaders who have worked on this literally for decades, and they will see the fruits of their labor. That will be immensely gratifying for them personally and for our region. We’ll be giddy,” said Winnecke.
Count Evansville-based Old National Bank CEO Jim Ryan among that group. He said the interstate has positively impacted businesses and economic growth in southwest Indiana since the initial stretch opened between Evansville and Crane in 2012.
But he said the completion of the connection at Interstate 465 on the south side of Indianapolis is an essential last step.
“Full completion is what matters. You think about a company like Berry Global [in Evansville] that’s running trucks everywhere. They need real highways, all the way. Even if there’s a small section that’s not done, it’s still not as helpful as having a real highway,” Ryan said. “We’re constantly moving team members from northern Indiana to southern Indiana to central and northern Indiana. We can do that with a higher degree of confidence.”
Phil Powell, executive director of the Indiana Business Research Center and economics professor at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business, said the highway’s completion is a win for all Hoosiers.
“For so long, we had important parts of our state not connected to the rest of the state by interstate: Evansville and Bloomington,” Powell said. “The connection of one more interstate node to I-465 does nothing but fuel great energy in our economy in Indianapolis and also the state.”
In the past decade, two more sections of I-69 opened along the corridor: Section 4 from Crane to Bloomington in 2015 and Section 5 from Bloomington to Martinsville in 2018. Section 6 from Martinsville to Indianapolis began construction in 2019.
While the additional sections enriched the Evansville area, Winnecke said the interstate improved transportation efficiency from the start.
“The opening of the interstate dating back to 2012 has enhanced businesses’ ability in our region to transport finished product as well as raw material. It’s given them greater flexibility and allowed them to be a more efficient operator no matter what their line of business is,” said Winnecke.
As new sections of I-69 opened over the years, the interstate gave the business community a quicker alternative to the backroads between Evansville and Indianapolis.
“I know I can leave my office right now and be in downtown Indianapolis in two hours and 20 minutes. Ten years ago, you were looking at three or three and a half hours. So it’s a nice, safe interstate. It allows people an opportunity to get from here to there faster,” Winnecke said.
I-69 is a selling point in attracting new businesses to southwest Indiana. According to Koch, Toyota located its plant in Princeton in 1996 because of the promise of I-69.
“And that spawned a whole bunch of new companies and growth of businesses and diversification of the types of industries and businesses in the Evansville area,” Koch said. “It’s also helped in Kentucky. Pratt Industries put a new recycling corrugated plant in Henderson as a result of I-69.”
“It opens up doors for businesses looking to relocate to this region because of this enhanced logistics option. And businesses who are already here are thinking about making a greater investment because of the same reason,” added Winnecke.
Ryan said the interstate plays an important role in the state’s efforts to bring new employees to the area.
“Part of attracting new talent is having strong transportation systems, whether it be flights or highways,” said Ryan. “Toyota attracts people from 100 miles away to come to work for them. I’m on the board of Deaconess Hospital. They attract patients and workers from great distances.”
I-69 has also enabled better access to recreational activities on both ends of the corridor. “Folks go to central Indiana to take advantage of all the great arts, entertainment and sporting venues. But I also hear all the time about people taking advantage of the Ford Center and some of the college sports. We do a lot of softball and baseball tournaments and soccer tournaments,” Ryan said.
Winnecke said sports tourism in the Evansville area has increased because of the interstate. “We have the Ohio Valley Conference men’s and women’s basketball tournament. We have the NCAA Elite Eight. We’ve had the Missouri Valley Conference, swimming and diving,” said Winnecke. “I’m very confident that we’re on more people’s radar because of I-69.”
The final I-69 connection between Evansville and Indianapolis is not only physical but also symbolic, Ryan said.
“Where barriers existed in the past between southern Indiana and central Indiana, the highway’s a manifestation of this connectedness that in the past was challenging,” Ryan said. “It’s opened up professional relationships and business opportunities, and it’s brought the state closer together.”
With the amount of land that lies north of Evansville along the interstate, Ryan said future opportunities are unlimited. Powell agreed, saying interstates are magnets for economic development and corporate investment.
“Which means better jobs, lower unemployment, and it can help bring prosperity to our rural counties that are between Indianapolis and Bloomington,” said Powell. “It’s going to help economic development, it’s going to help communities, and it’s going to help make our state more globally competitive.”
Winnecke and Ryan said while the completion of the I-69 corridor to Indianapolis is something to celebrate, the road’s true potential won’t be reached until the $1.4 billion I-69 Ohio River Crossing is completed between Evansville and Henderson, Kentucky.
“The [bridge] itself will begin construction in 2027, which, in 2012 sounded like it would never get here. But it’s right around the corner. And we fully anticipate that based on all the information we get from INDOT, in 2031, that bridge will be open. And that is just music to the ears of so many people in our region,” said Winnecke.
The new bridge will provide commuters using the U.S. 41 Twin Bridges with an alternative way to cross the Ohio River and travelers passing through with a nonstop route.
“It will give those businesses that use the trucking industry a more direct route along the interstate corridor. All these trucks won’t have to stop on the U.S. 41 strip in Henderson,” said Winnecke. The strip “gets clogged with a lot of truck traffic that’s not driving business to nearby sites.”
Once the Ohio River Crossing is done, the I-69 perks experienced north of Evansville are expected to continue south.
“We’ve been urged to relocate some of our manufacturing facilities closer to our end customers,” said Koch. I-69 has “cut down on our shipping time to get our products to our customers in Michigan. And now a lot of them are going south, and they’re urging us to go south. So as we complete I-69 going further south, that’ll keep us right here in the Midwest, in the Evansville area.”
“We can’t ignore the fact that, yes, it’s good to go to Indianapolis, but this highway system’s got to run both north and south,” added Ryan. “It’s been a long time coming, a big part of the dream for us in southern Indiana to have that connectedness. And we’re getting so close on the bridge work. But the full value cannot be reached until we get that bridge done.”•
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