Even though the construction of Interstate 69 between Evansville and Indianapolis is well under way — you can even drive on a short stretch — those pesky mischief-makers in the Bloomington area are at it again.
This time they have filed a federal suit to block the project, alleging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated federal law by giving the state permission to fill wetlands and reroute streams along part of the highway's route in the area between Washington and Crane. According to the Associated Press, the plaintiffs asked the court to halt work on the entire highway until the defendants fully comply with the federal Clean Water Act.
The suit was filed by Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads and the Hoosier Environmental Council, organizations that have fought construction of a direct Evansville-to-Indianapolis highway from the beginning. It seems that as long as this newspaper and others in Southwestern Indiana have talked about the need for a highway between the state's third largest city and its state capital, these groups have talked about how we should be satisfied with existing highways, which as a number of contributors to "Your Turn" on courierpress.com have pointed out, are anything but "appropriate."
The opponents sued once before, over the state process used by the O'Bannon administration to select the direct route, but it failed. We expect that this latest suit will fail, as well, given, in part, that the highway is already under construction. More important, though, is the fact that the Indiana Department of Transportation is going to extreme measures to protect the environment with this construction project. The state's efforts render the complaint somewhat disingenuous.
As we have reported on this page on a number of occasions, the state of Indiana promised years ago to triple replace any forest acres taken by Interstate 69.
Then, in June, Gov. Mitch Daniels announced that the state would begin purchasing 43,000 acres in the flood plain of the Wabash River. That area alone is larger than Brown County State Park and Morgan-Monroe State Forest combined.
Then, the state followed this up by announcing the purchase of 25,600 acres along the Muscatatuck River in what is know as the Muscatatuck Bottoms. It is said to contain the largest least-fragmented complex of bottomland forest in Indiana.
And yet, despite these commendable efforts, the highway opponents would wish the highway project scuttled because some streams and wetlands must be altered. Considering all of the other interstate highways that cross Indiana, we doubt these are the first wetlands and forests to be impacted by highway construction. But we would bet that none of the others received the level of environmental mitigation provided by the Interstate 69 construction.
To make it worse, according to the Associated Press, the direct route foes still want the state to consider running the I-69 route along U.S. 41 north to Terre Haute, and then along Interstate 70 into Indianapolis — anything to keep the highway far away from Bloomington. Unfortunately, such a plan would keep in dangerous play the same old narrow, curvy two-lane roads that travelers between Evansville and Bloomington must now use. That is the shame in this whole discussion: that I-69 foes would condemn motorists — including Indiana University students from this area — to continue driving on these dangerous roads.
Beyond that, it is beyond ridiculous that I-69 opponents would still be pushing for running this highway through Terre Haute, blocking hundreds of roads and drives, homes and businesses along U.S. 41. even as constructions proceeds along the direct route.
Despite their claims, when this project is completed, motorists traveling between Evansville and Indianapolis will be safer and the environment, with the gain of tens of thousands of additional protected acres, will be better off.