Op-Ed: Community over highways
The Coalition Against the Mid-States Corridor, a member of the National Freeway Fighters Network, recently attended the annual Summit in Minneapolis, Minnesota aptly named Community Over Highways. Over 100 attendees represented numerous organizations working against wrongful highway expansions, new highways, or replacing existing highways with better options. The common denominator in all these projects is that the process does not include the community in general who will be impacted the most. These true stakeholders are not given a seat at the table when the state department of transportation evaluates the projects they so desperately want.
In the case of the Mid-States Corridor, a new 54-mile terrain highway in a rural area of Southern Indiana, it didn’t even start with the Indiana Department of Transportation. It started with a small group of wealthy business owners who wished to benefit their own businesses. They had political allies who passed a bill to form a Regional Development Authority and appointed a five-member board of their friends to raise money to fund the initial study.
Unfortunately, a large part of the community throughout Dubois, Martin, and Daviess Counties are not even aware of all the negative impacts this project will create. I even question if the local government leaders understand all the consequences of the Mid-States Corridor. Just like the many other potential projects being opposed across the country, the Mid-States Corridor will end up destroying and dividing our community if it happens.
We all know and understand the proposed route for the Mid-States Corridor will displace homeowners, take farms away, and impact families and neighbors. The question has always been – is displacing homeowners, farms, families and neighbors really a benefit for the sake of a few businesses to have a little more convenient access for their trucks? Is it a benefit for our farming community in the path of the proposed highway that will lose an estimated $1.4 million in farm income every year?
Then there is the issue of lost property tax, income tax, and all the other added costs the counties and our taxpayers will be burdened with. Is that a benefit to the entire community? Are you aware if this highway happens it will be the new US 231, and the existing US 231 will become the responsibility of the towns and county to maintain? What is the cost to us taxpayers for that?
The advocates and backers of this proposed highway continue to state and promote it is needed for economic development and long-range growth, but there is no data or evidence this will happen. In fact, it is a huge gamble. There is evidence across the country where highways have been built, and the promised economic development never happened. Look at US 231 through Spencer County, Indiana. In the 14 years since the 4-lane US 231 was opened to traffic in March 2011, economic development consists of one Dollar General store. Now think about how the towns of Dale, Rockport, Chrisney, and others have been decimated.
These studies also never consider the effects on public health. In Southern Indiana, we already live in an environmental sacrifice zone with some of the worst air and water quality in the nation, based on data from the Climate Reality group. Are we willing to accept more pollution and sacrifice our own health, and the health of future generations just to save a few minutes of travel time to your destination?
Just like a lot of projects being evaluated around the country, improving safety and congestion is used as a purpose to justify projects. While the proponents of the Mid-States Corridor continue to promote this aspect to gain the support of the community, the fact is the study’s own data proves there is no safety or congestion issues on the existing US 231 that warrant this highway. Every city or town has their own traffic issues in one form or another. For the Mid-States Corridor project, the study has identified these as one intersection in Jasper during the AM peak travel time, and one in Huntingburg during the peak PM travel time. These don’t get fixed by building a highway.
What truly is a safety issue if this highway gets built are the school buses packed with children who will have to cross the highway several times a day at dangerous intersections with traffic flowing at over 60 mph. Yet none of this seems to be factored into the analysis. Then there are the number of roads that will be cut off from access to the highway where residents will have to travel extra miles to get to their destination. And it doesn’t factor in the extra time it would take if there was an emergency for the EMS, law enforcement, or fire department to get to their destination. Unfortunately, according to one Dubois County Commissioner, that will only be a minor inconvenience to the residents.
Expansions like this are not needed in rural areas. Did you know that the existing US 231 is currently used at less than 25% capacity? The reasons for this highway are not justified. Improving the existing US 231 by adding passing lanes and improving intersections through towns, along with improving and designating existing roads for truck routes, all at a fraction of the cost, is all that is needed.
Highways like the Mid-States Corridor will become an open wound to the community. It will divide the community and will create more travel time and daily frustrations for our rural residents. It will change our landscape forever and not for the better. The change will be irreversible. There are smarter options. And regarding future growth, the economic development group and business leaders need to put their energy toward working on smart, sustainable growth to advance our already vibrant community and quit stating they need this highway to attract workers and companies. To quote the esteemed professor of economics, Michael Hicks, “In the modern economy, jobs follow people. People don’t follow jobs.” He also states, “it’s time to reconsider how Indiana approaches economic development.”
Mark Nowotarski
Jasper, Indiana
