Read the report
The draft environmental impact statement for Section 5 of Interstate 69 may be downloaded at www.i69indyevn.org/section-5-deis. It is about 1,800 pages long. It is also available for viewing at the Section 5 I-69 Office, 3802 Industrial Blvd., Unit 2, and at the Monroe County Public Library.
Public comments on the document will be accepted through Jan. 2, 2013, and may be submitted at the website above or to Mary Jo Hamman at Michael Baker Jr. Corp., P.O. Box 8464, Evansville, IN, 47716.
A public hearing on the document is planned for 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Dec. 6 in the Monroe County Fairgrounds auditorium. The event will include an informal open house, a formal presentation and a public comment period, with each speaker allowed two minutes.
The preferred route of Interstate 69 Section 5, planned to run along Ind. 37 from That Road southwest of Bloomington into Morgan County, will displace 150 homes, 32 businesses and one church.
It also will affect 30 neighborhoods, including Van Buren Park, where the residents of 20 homes will be displaced.
It will take about 60 acres of farmland, 248 acres of upland forest, 8 acres of wetlands, and 110 acres of floodplain, and cost around $525 million to build the 21.4-mile stretch of highway, according to the draft environmental impact statement, published by the Federal Highway Administration and the Indiana Department of Transportation.
The report “fully evaluates the alternatives that complete I-69 as a fully access-controlled freeway, upgrading Ind. 37 to interstate standards.”
“Because Section 5 involves upgrading existing (Ind.) 37, this project includes more displacements than other I-69 sections that involve new terrain development,” the document says. I-69 Sections 1 through 4 combined required about 175 residential and nine business displacements.
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