Letter: Mid-States Corridor a statewide issue

Over the past few years, our organization, the Coalition Against the Mid-States Corridor, has been trying to show that this is more than a local issue. It is a statewide issue that will affect all Hoosier taxpayers if INDOT and the Governor try to proceed with building it.

This proposed 54-mile new terrain highway in southern Indiana is a costly and highly destructive project. Initially, we focused on the overall cost of this proposed highway. Upon the release of the initial Tier 1 study, the estimated cost was $1+ billion at 2020 costs and did not include land acquisitions. As INDOT proceeds with the detailed Tier 2 study, the cost for just the 23–24-mile section through Dubois County has ballooned to $1.3 billion at 2024 cost and doesn’t include land acquisition. It is projected this entire project could exceed $3 billion if built. 

Indiana has many miles of existing roads and bridges that need to be repaired or fixed. The current Statewide Transportation Improvement Program, STIP, identifies hundreds of projects that need to be improved in every 92 counties of the state, and the state does not have the funding to do all these projects. The Mid-States Corridor is not even listed.

So, what is INDOT’s solution to this serious dilemma to manage the crumbling roads and bridges? Last week they announced over 340 projects that are being eliminated or delayed. However, INDOT and the Governor want to move the Mid-States Corridor up to the top of the list. This means that taxpayers statewide will be paying for a costly, highly destructive, unwanted and unneeded project with very little, if any, benefit.

Taxpayers and local officials in every county whose projects are affected should be contacting their legislators to put a stop to this overreach.

Mark Nowotarski
Coalition Against the Mid-States Corridor