Indiana highway Commissioner Tom Sharp told legislators, contractors and consultants this past week that if Interstate 69 is to be constructed, it will have to be as a toll road.
That's no surprise. Gov. Mitch Daniels and Sharp have been saying for several months that I-69 between Evansville and Indianapolis will be a toll road or no road.
What's news is that it comes as the Indiana Legislature is preparing for its 2006 session, at which Daniels' highway modernization plan will be introduced. It is make-or-break time for the long-needed direct I-69, as well as for other highway improvements in Indiana.
Indeed, if you want to see I-69 built in your lifetime, tell the Legislature to look favorably on Daniels' plan.
I-69, talked about for more than 50 years in one form or another, has passed by many crossroads, and has seen its share of detours, all to get to this point.
The previous state Democratic administration, which selected the direct route and launched planning on the project, felt the highway project could be funded from state and federal highway revenues. However, when Republican Daniels took office in January, he said the state, deeply in debt and facing more highway work than it could afford, could not complete I-69 and other projects the traditional way.
Instead, Daniels came up with his Major Moves plan to not only use or increase tolls, but to privatize some road projects in order to get the highest-priority road jobs done.
Some readers have suggested it is not fair to make I-69 a toll road when existing state highways were financed by conventional means. And they are right - it's not fair. But it is the only way Indiana and its Southwestern counties are going to see this highway constructed.
According to Jennifer Whitson of the Courier & Press' Indianapolis bureau, Sharp said in his meetings this past week that the Indiana Department of Transportation estimates that if a private company could build I-69 and run it as a toll road, it could net the state between $900 million and $1.4 billion. He said the state would then cover the remainder of the $1.8 billion cost for the project.
Whitson reported that the federal government is apparently on board as well. She quoted Tyler Duvall of the U.S. Department of Transportation as saying federal officials are excited about Daniels' approach. He said the federal government would not be an obstacle, if Indiana chooses to go that route.
The big question now is how strong opposition to his plan will be as the Indiana Legislature begins its session in a few weeks. Already, the Indiana Democratic Party has started an online petition to oppose leasing the Indiana Toll Road, another aspect of the governor's plan.
Those who oppose Daniels' approach need only to look south to the state of Kentucky, which used tolls to build and operate a beautiful highway system. Years after tolls paid off some of those Bluegrass State highways, we're still driving on second-class roadways and arguing about what to do. Daniels has said that if his Major Moves initiative is approved by the Legislature, dirt could be turned on I-69 in three years. It's time to do it. The Legislature needs to think bold and adopt Daniels' highway initiative. It's time to build the I-69 toll road.