INDIANAPOLIS —State transportation officials are maneuvering around one roadblock that had the potential to slow Interstate 69 construction, but now could face another.
A Bloomington group notified state and federal officials this week that if their environmental concerns are not addressed, the group will sue in order to ask a judge to force the issue.
The lawsuit would come on the heels of a Bloomington transportation planning group's effort to strip I-69 from its plans in hopes of forcing the state to route the highway away from the city.
Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads, which for years has pushed Gov. Mitch Daniels' administration to abandon its efforts to build the 142-mile "new terrain" route from Indianapolis to Evansville, made the threat.
The group says the highway could result in the extinction of an endangered species of bats. It says the highway could increase air pollution and harm the Patoka National Wildlife Refuge.
Mick Harrison, the group's attorney, said those issues leave "serious unanswered questions" about the impact of building a new interstate highway through rural Southwestern Indiana.
Indiana Department of Transportation officials would not address the specifics of the potential lawsuit.
"INDOT follows the law, works closely with state and federal environmental agencies and doesn't comment on potential or pending litigation," said INDOT spokesman Will Wingfield.
The lawsuit would be the second potential hurdle created for I-69 by Bloomington organizations in recent months.
Earlier this year, the Bloomington Metropolitan Planning Organization tried to block the highway's construction near the city. However, the state's transportation department might have maneuvered around that obstacle.
Such MPOs were created by the federal government. In order for a project to receive federal dollars, it must be included in state and regional transportation plans, and also the plans of any local MPOs through which it passes.
The Bloomington MPO this year voted to strip I-69 out of its plans – a move that jeopardized a 27-mile stretch from the Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center to the Bloomington area, which is estimated to cost $400 million and be completed in the next two years.
The MPOs, though, must also win state transportation officials' approval before any changes to their plans are finalized. The state is refusing to give that approval.
The state submitted its own transportation plan to the Federal Highway Administration on June 20, and that plan included a version that the Bloomington MPO had passed in 2010, instead of the one without I-69 that it approved in May.
The Bloomington-area groups' efforts have done little to slow the Daniels' administration.
The highway extension is broken into six sections, with work starting on the end closest to Evansville. All of the contracts for construction of the first three sections, extending to the Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center, are signed.
Meanwhile, the state is soon expected to finalize plans for the fourth section, which would move the highway up to Bloomington.