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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowState officials have chosen the preferred route of a proposed highway that would run from the Ohio River to Interstate 69, linking small southern Indiana communities to I-69.
The Indiana Department of Transportation announced its selection of the “Alternative P” route over several other options for the Mid-States Corridor in a public notice published Monday in the classifieds section of the Evansville Courier & Press, the newspaper reported.
The notice says the route would start in Spencer County and use existing U.S. 231 until it links with Interstate 64. A new, 54-mile portion of the road would then branch off and run parallel to U.S. 231 before linking with I-69 just north of the Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center in Martin County.
That route would mostly bypass “developed” parts of towns along the path, including Jasper and Loogootee, the notice states.
Mid-States Corridor Project spokeswoman Mindy Peterson declined to provide specifics–including why INDOT chose “alternative P”–until an environmental impact statement is released Friday.
Public hearings on the preferred route are set for April 26 at WestGate Academy in Odon, and April 28 at the Jasper Arts Center on Vincennes University’s Jasper campus.
INDOT and the project’s supporters say it will improve southern Indiana’s highway connections.
Opponents have argued that building a new highway would damage the region’s forests and caves. Residents have also said it would hurt businesses by diverting motorists around small towns.
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What a colossal waste of money.
But the Senator needs his highway near Jasper so he can get to and from the airport faster.
Someone please stop this madness. Didn’t Indiana learn from the I69 extension from Bloomington to Evansville?
Mike – what part of Bloomington to Evansville are you referring?
I’m in NE part of state, so don’t know the intracies of that project, other than I considered an expansion of business to Evansville would have not considered as seriously pre-69 extension plan.
Why do we even need roads? Surely it’s better if nobody is able to drive to, through, or from these areas.
There’s already a major state highway along the route of this new highway: US231. I would be interested in knowing the average daily traffic currently…it’s probably less than a busy Indianapolis street.
Yes, gosh, no one can drive to any of those areas now on any of the numerous existing roads and highways—it is amazing all these communities have survived for so many generations without roads!
This sounds extremely wasteful and redundant as it parallels the recently opened new-terrain I-69. And, why is it called the Mid-States Corridor? Is it supposed to extend through multiple states in the middle of the country, or it that just a name that matches the wisdom of the proposed project itself?