By Peter Ciancone

Tribune-Star

The Indiana Department of Transportation officials and their consultants said they still have information and public comment to study before they announce a final preferred route for the proposed Interstate 69.

Critics said that the route is preordained, and the study is "fatally flawed."

This week INDOT conducted three public meetings in the hot spots of the debate: Terre Haute, which wants the highway through it, Bloomington, which doesn't want the highway through it, and Evansville, which wants a route through Bloomington. INDOT will announce its preferred route before the end of the year.

The Federal Highway Administration will issue a "record of decision" thereafter, which federal transportation officials said rarely contradicts the findings of state department of transportation studies.

Mike Grovak, program manager for the study with Evansville consulting firm Bernardin, Lochmueller and Associates, said he was screening the comments they are getting from e-mail, post and telephone calls about the draft environmental impact statement that INDOT released July 31.

"I'm on the 55th e-mail comment sent yesterday," he said in a telephone interview Friday morning, and that number had been received Thursday mid-afternoon with many others sure to follow. "The method of choice [for sending comment] is e-mail. It has made it a lot easier for people to express themselves."

Grovak said every comment about the study would be published as an appendix to the study when the final route is announced.

Critics of the study say it doesn't account for cost, the environment or public opinion.

Andy Knott, air and energy policy director for the Hoosier Environmental Council, said INDOT has failed to account for the overwhelming support for U.S. 41/I-70. He said public comment at this week's meetings ran almost 3 to 1 in favor of it.

While some of the public comments were repeated by individuals at more than one meeting, Knott said that would not change the proportion much.

"These hearings were a big victory for the U.S. 41/I-70 route," he said.

INDOT Commissioner J. Bryan Nicol has said repeatedly that the decision will be based on transportation needs rather than a "popularity contest," but indicated that the public comments will count toward making the final decision.

Comments in favor of a route through the middle of southwestern Indiana predominately stressed the importance of the highway as an economic development tool.

Many people complained about the two-minute time limit on speakers at public meetings. Nicol said INDOT doubled the length of this public comment period, and that a comment made at the end of the period would carry the same weight as a comment made at the meetings.

INDOT officials did not return several calls Friday seeking comment about the past week's meetings.

The draft environmental impact statement listed the route through Terre Haute, along U.S. 41/Interstate 70 as "non-preferred," even though it is the least expensive and least disruptive to the environment, according to the same statement. That rating brought a torrent of angry responses from Bloomington area residents who don't want the highway to disturb their natural environment.

"The core goals that INDOT has established [for this study] are not our core goals," Richard Martin, a Bloomington resident, said at the meeting there Tuesday. That meeting was frequently interrupted by heckling, though public comment ran strongly in favor of using the environmentally friendly and cheapest route.

Grovak said he had received several comments outside public meetings from people living in the Bloomington area who want the highway through there, but did not want to state their opinions in public, fearing the heckling others got in doing so.

Knott said HEC asked for the public comments about the route study in 1996 that were submitted outside public meetings, and may ask for them after this Nov. 7 public comment period ends.

INDOT invites comment through its 24-hour project hotline: 1-877-463-9386, or via e-mail on its Web site at www.i69indyevn.org. Comments also can be mailed to: Mike Grovak, program manager, Bernardin, Lochmueller and Associates, 6200 Vogel Road, Evansville, IN 47715.

Copyright 2002 Tribune Star