Mid-States Corridor: What’s happening and next steps
The need for stronger connectivity in southern Indiana has been discussed for many years, and the Mid-States Corridor Project examines that improved highway connection. The Project is a detailed study and it’s important to give you a better understanding of what’s happening, next steps and what to expect.
The Mid-States Corridor would begin at State Road 66 near the William H. Natcher Bridge crossing the Ohio River at Rockport, continue generally through the Huntingburg and Jasper area and extend north to connect to Interstate 69. The job of this Project Team is to decide how to best make that connection while eliminating or minimizing as many impacts as possible.
This Project Team is preparing a Tier 1 Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). It’s a detailed document required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for major construction projects that will include federal funding. It’s a comprehensive, prescribed process that ensures informed decisions are being made. This means assessing benefits, impacts and costs of a range of alternatives.
A long list of impacts is considered to both natural resources and the community including impacts to the natural environment, residences, farms, businesses, managed lands and cultural resources.
The Project Team started with dozens of potential preliminary alternatives in summer 2019. After our screening process, ten alternatives on five routes are moving forward for more detailed study. These routes were identified after engineering and environmental analyses and input from stakeholders, including the public. You can find the full Screening report on the project website, midstatescorridor.com.
The remaining routes have the greatest potential to meet the project’s purpose and need to improve regional connectivity for personal accessibility and businesses, support economic development in southern Indiana, improve traffic safety in the area and improve access to major rail and air intermodal centers. Each will be considered as the Team takes a closer look at impacts, benefits and costs. No decisions have been made, and defined routes have not been determined.
By this fall, we expect to identify a preferred corridor when we publish the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). The routes being considered now are 2-mile wide study bands. A preferred alternative will include a 2,000-foot corridor within which the approximately 300-600-foot right of way would ultimately be placed. A Record of Decision (ROD) from the Federal Highway Administration is expected in summer 2021 and will identify the selected alternative. Tier 2 studies can begin after the ROD is approved, and final alignments and access will be determined.
People are eager to hear a timeline, and we want to provide as much information as possible. Tier 2 studies are expected to take about two years to complete, depending on how they’re scheduled and requirements of the studies. After Tier 2 studies, available funding will determine the start of pre-construction activities and the timing of construction. We are multiple years away from detailed information about property impacts and right of way.
Many things are considered during the study, and public feedback is an important part of the process. We saw large and engaged crowds at our recent public meetings in Loogootee, Bedford and Jasper, and we’ve heard from hundreds more following the meetings.
Our Screening Report Questionnaire is available through March 23, but comments are always welcomed by the Project Team. Comments can be made online on the project website, by mail, by phone or in person at our project office. We want to hear from you.
We’ll be reaching back out to agencies and the public this fall to get your feedback and comments after we publish the DEIS. Hearings will include a public comment period. Every comment received will be considered as the corridor is refined based on input received.
The Project Team has accomplished a lot, but there’s still much work to do. Know that we’ll continue to keep you informed, ask for and review your input and share information at key milestones. We appreciate the interest in this project.
Jason DuPont, Mid-States Corridor Project Team, project manager
Yes, let’s destroy people’s homes and lives for ANOTHER highway when we barely maintain the ones we have .
This is misleading. The majority of the people who went to your meetings don’t want this road and weren’t given a chance to speak about it at the meetings!
I bet we could save a lot of time, effort, and tax dollars if this went straight to a vote of people living in this area. I truly believe this is absolutely not what the majority of the citizens that live in this area want.
Part of the allure and beauty of Southern Indiana is its scenic roads and drives. The French Lick and West Baden Hotels sell out all the time with the current roads that are in place. With the I-69 projects nearing completion, no other roads are necessary. I agree with others. A very high percentage of land and home owners are against this project and any of the proposed routes. Waste of money.
Why not improve the existing roads that are already here instead of adding more.
Not enough money to fix the roads we have now, but money for all this. Take care of what people have to drive on daily.
Please do not build this road. No regular average person wants this thing to be built. It’s going to take away land and homes that have been in families for generations. Fix the roads we have and leave it at that. There is no option available that is not going to impact someone in a negative way.
I do believe in progress. Yes, connectivity via the roads in southern Indians could provide improvement in transportation. A good example of that progress is the interstate highway system going through the city of Indianapolis. However, many citizens here in southern indiana do not believe that our Indiana government will provide the necessary funds to build I-69 the way it should be done. Why? Because of our crumbling Hwy. 231 that is full of potholes and patched blacktop surfaces. That is just one example of the many failing roads here in southern Indiana. Until our leaders can prove that they can and will provide monies for the existing roads, our citizens will not trust their decisions moving into the area of progress! And I must add that it seems that our leaders have no problem allocating millions of dollars for another study. To our leaders: step up on existing roads and quit wasting money on the studies and the politics that have been going on for the last several decades. Maybe then you would earn the trust of our citizens.
Agree with the previous posters…I about saw a car get lost in a pothole on 231 in Huntingburg last night. What a joke. This State raises the gasoline tax to supposedly take care of the roads and it is not obvious to me that is happening. If it is, the repairs are only temporary. Pitiful.
The Herald article a couple of weeks ago that suggested that opinions vary regarding this project was “fake news!!!” opinions do not vary on this issue. The overwhelming majority of people have absolutely no appetite for this project. I have already spoken to hundreds of people. The potential for a by pass around Huntingburg has essentially been mis-managed for the past 30 years. There were other opportunities as the town grew to incorporate options within existing infrastructure and they were tossed aside and I have my ideas as to why. Full disclosure…I am a fifth generation farmer and one of the routes will split my family’s farm down the middle and essentially put me out of farming. Think about this for a moment….Our family’s farm has been operating within the same family for 115 years. We have likely paid for that farm 20 times over in property taxes and now that tax money is being turned around and used against my family in an effort to potentially take our property against our will. Truly amazing. I encourage people to speak up, because if you don’t you will get run over, and even perhaps your home and farm will be.
Joe Keusch – Huntingburg
5th generation farmer
After reading many of the replys, it appears that we do NOT need another road sliced into our lands. As far as connectivity, how about finding for all the needed repairs to our current crumbling roads. You say a new route will stimulate business and economics? I think not. Make improvements to what is already out there, that goes north, south, east, and west!!!
I am also a home owner who will loose thier home if this road route goes through Daviess County. I can’t honestly see why anyone with common sense would want to build a new road 2 miles from an existing road in this case 257. Fix 257 so commuters don’t have to take alternative routes when the road floods. That is what Daviess County needs not another large road that will not get the upkeep it needs. No one I know wa9this new road. Fix what we have and use our tax money for that instead of spending money in wasteful manners. We live in Southern Indiana because we like living in the country we don’t want big roads to ruin that.
People are rude, cruel and uncaring. They do not care about the rest of us they do not care about what we value or what our lives consist of or what we live on. They do not car. They are greedy and believe money and growing are more important than someone else’s entire livelihood. It is sickening to watch people and how they’d greed on others like us that have no actual say in what happens but us who try to put some sense into them. It is us who should be able to voice and choose not someone that wants to make money on it to take ours away. I wish we could change people like that for the better I really do. Pleas pray for them!