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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndiana will spend $475 million on three significant downstate road projects, including $200 million to finish a leg of I-69 from Evansville to the Ohio River.
Gov. Eric Holcomb made the announcement Friday in Evansville, where the I-69 project will set the stage for a joint Indiana-Kentucky plan to build a new interstate bridge across the Ohio River.
The Evansville project will involve designing an approach to the Ohio River which includes an interchange with the existing I-69 and Veterans Memorial Parkway in Evansville as well as a new 1.5-mile section of new-terrain interstate to the Ohio River.
Indiana expects to begin construction on its I-69 approach to the Ohio River in 2024. Once Kentucky launches construction of its approach, the two states hope to begin bridge design in 2025 and bridge construction in 2027, The Evansville Courier & Press reported earlier this year.
Other projects announced Friday call for:
•$200 million to be spent in southeastern Indiana to extend State Road 101 from U.S. 50 to the Ohio River in Switzerland, Ohio and Dearborn counties.
•$75 million for improvements on U.S. 231 to ease congestion around Jasper and Huntingburg as well as generally improve travel along the 48-mile stretch of U.S. 231 between I-64 and I-69.
It was not immediately clear what impact, if any, the U.S. 231 project would have on alternative new-terrain routes being discussed for a Mid-States corridor highway proposed in the same area.
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I-69 on the south side of Evansville currently ends at US 41. The Indiana state line runs along the length of Waterworks Road, which is roughly halfway between the end of I-69 and the Ohio River (the Ellis Park horse track is on the Kentucky side just south of that road). It is not clear in the article if the “new 1.5-mile section of new-terrain interstate to the Ohio River” will be paid by Indiana, nor is it clear if Indiana will share in the cost of the new bridge, the entirety of which will be in Kentucky. Some clarification is needed.
If its like it usually is when Kentucky is involved, Indiana will end up paying for the lion’s share of the cost.
Wonder why the state can’t bring itself to upgrade the I-69 & 465 interchange?
I believe they are doing so next year or soon after, but yes, that should have been fixed at least a decade ago.
Wonder how many people live in Switzerland, Ohio, and Dearborn Counties who the new $200 million road will serve?
(Answer, a total of about 66,000 in the three counties combined. The road will cost $3000 per resident.)