By Eric Bradner, Evansville Courier & Press

INDIANAPOLIS - The price tag to extend Interstate 69 from Indianapolis to Evansville has soared past $3 billion, according to new Indiana Department of Transportation estimates.

State officials said the 142-mile extension would cost $1.77 billion as they lobbied the federal government to approve the project in 2003. But those officials now say inflation and other costs have pushed the anticipated price to $3.1 billion.

In light of the higher costs, opponents have renewed calls to build the highway along an existing route rather than carving a new route through Southwestern Indiana.

INDOT and Gov. Mitch Daniels stand behind a new-terrain route. The state Highway Department is taking steps to keep costs down, and the I-69 extension is still on course, said Bruce Childs, an INDOT deputy commissioner.

"We're going to build it. That's what's happening," he said.

Childs said several years of double-digit inflation is the top reason for the uptick in construction prices. Initial cost estimates were based on the value of the dollar in 2000, he said, while current estimates are in year-2010 dollars.

Another key reason: A bridge over the Patoka Wildlife Refuge was lengthened from 500 feet to 4,400 feet, pushing the cost of the bridge to $40 million.

Cost-cutting considered

INDOT is considering cost-cutting steps such as reducing the median from 84 feet to 60 feet and paving the highway with asphalt instead of concrete.

Those steps, Childs said, put costs on the low end of the range the environmental impact studies projected.

"The lower costs still meet the federal guidelines," he said. "They're just not as wide, so your footprint is smaller."

INDOT also has postponed some planned interchanges - an announcement met with some criticism from cities and towns that expected to benefit from the new highway.

INDOT is building the I-69 extension from Evansville to Indianapolis in six sections.

Construction already has started on 1.8 miles of the first section near Interstate 64 just north of Evansville. Officials are finalizing plans for the second and third sections, which cover 54 miles from Oakland City to Crane.

In 2003, those sections were projected to cost $422 million, the midpoint of high and low cost estimates.

The increased price for those sections was listed in draft environmental impact studies INDOT released earlier this year. Those studies pinned the cost at $863 million.

Childs said the department's most recent estimates have driven that amount down to $795 million.

Construction timetable

Section one, from Evansville to Oakland City, will be under full construction by 2011 and is expected to be finished by the fall of 2012.

Sections two and three should be finished by 2016.

A timetable for the three northernmost sections, originally expected to cost $1.2 billion but now listed at $2.1 billion, has not been finalized.

State highway officials cautioned that price estimates likely are to change as INDOT continues its efforts to control costs, especially over the final three sections, which will link the Crane warfare center to Indianapolis and will be the last completed.

Tim Maloney, the Hoosier Environmental Council's senior policy director, said it's not too late for the state to abandon the "new-terrain" route and instead build I-69 along Interstate 70 and U.S. 41, a route that goes west and then south and is 14 miles longer.

"The route selection was misguided from the beginning," he said. "I think over time that with these projected cost increases that conclusion is just reinforced."

He said steps such as narrower medians only chip away at a much larger problem.

"It's no more than a sort of a Band-Aid solution that doesn't address the bigger issues with the preferred route that the state's chosen," he said.

Maloney objected to the state Highway Department's decision to cut some interchanges. He said doing so is dishonest because those interchanges were part of how the state sold the I-69 extension to Southwestern Indiana communities in the first place.

"Those kinds of changes call into question the ability of the project to serve its purpose, and whether that purpose in the beginning was really well-justified," Maloney said.

Major Moves funding

Childs said INDOT still believes money from the $3.6 billion lease of a northern Indiana toll road, dubbed "Major Moves," will cover I-69 costs through 2015.

The state already has set aside $700 million in Major Moves money for the project's construction costs.

It's a top priority for INDOT and Daniels, and Childs emphasized they will not change course, at least through 2015.

After that, he said, Daniels will have left office and the state will have to consider "more traditional" funding methods to continue the project toward Indianapolis.

The draft environmental impact studies covering the two sections from Oakland City to Crane are posted online at www.i69indyevn.org and are open for public comment until June 8.

INDOT already has held two meetings, one in Washington, and the other in Elnora, to invite the public to discuss the project.

At one meeting, a woman said the route INDOT is considering would cut her farm in half, leaving her house on one side and her dairy cows on the other side.

Childs said as INDOT finalizes plans for those sections, the department will seek to avoid such situations.

"I suspect when we get around to evaluating, that's one of the comments that will be really looked at closely so that we'll see if we can avoid doing that to those folks," he said.