Letter: Safety isn’t a core goal of the Mid-States Corridor

I’m objecting to the recent letter to the editor trying to convince the public that the proposed Mid-States Corridor is about safety.  

The project office, Lochmueller, emphasized safety/congestion as a core goal in 2019/2020 public meetings.  I went to Jasper Common Council the week of May 16th, 2022, and Dubois County Council the week of May 23rd, 2022, to emphasize in a public forum that “Safety” was removed as a core goal during the Mid-States Corridor Tier I Draft Environmental Impact Study (DEIS).  Safety became a secondary goal, and secondary goals are a nice benefit, but they do not have to be considered for the project to move forward.  If safety was so critical, then it would have remained a core goal of the project.  

A new road will lead to overlooked and unintended consequences that may make our roads more dangerous. This road will cut through existing main roads in Dubois County.  We don’t even know the plans for at-grade intersections or whether this will be a Super 2 or 4-lane divided highway, so how can someone confidently assert it will somehow be safer?  

I also want to point out that during public meetings it was also told to us that the type of highway would be selected during Tier I. The project office, at some point, deferred the decision on the type of highway until Tier II, which hasn’t even started yet.  

Once again, the public was misled and manipulated at the public meetings, and by doing this, it keeps the project moving along without actually getting too detailed on right-of-way impacts.  Shouldn’t INDOT already have traffic numbers that would support whether a super 2 or 4-lane highway is justified?  How much did the pandemic influence traffic data with more people working from home regularly?  This idea of a bypass road has been tossed around for approximately forty years and never moved forward because of massive public opposition which still exists.  The public meetings that Lochmueller held in Jasper and Odon were packed full and when speakers asked for those in attendance to raise their hands if they were against the Mid-States Corridor, I would estimate 95% or higher raised their hands.      

At the Dubois County Council meeting in May 2022, I provided a copy of the Evansville Courier Press from 5/22/22 where it quotes a former environmental worker assigned to the Mid-States Corridor project who ended up resigning because she didn’t want to become another rubber stamp on a project she felt would harm the environment and was unnecessary given it’s close proximity to I-69 and paralleling an existing road.  

Opposition to this road isn’t just Dubois County residents who are averse to change.  Very intelligent people who are experts in their field outside Dubois County are saying building new roads is outdated, especially given the threat to our environment right now.

Keep researching and you’ll find other engineers that realized their detailed plans weren’t best for the communities they served.  In a Govtech article they interview Charles Marohn, a civil engineer transportation expert.  The article says “he isn’t against spending federal dollars to repair the infrastructure we have.  He’s against handing more money over to transportation planners who will always be able to find an excuse to build something new.”  He’s quoted as saying “the present system is overbuilt and is going to contract…We have so much transportation infrastructure that every level of government is now choking on maintenance costs. I’m tired of seeing bridges fall down and expensive roads go bad while we spend billions on new stuff we will never be able to maintain.”  https://www.govtech.com/fs/should-america-stop-building-new-highways.html

I also found an opinion article from 07/2020 in New York Times titled Stop Building More Roads that says “Most developed countries already have effective road systems; they can be maintained, but the economic benefits of expansion are marginal and the downsides significant. Road construction is environmentally destructive, and it promotes urban sprawl, congestion, air pollution and inequality.”  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/opinion/us-infrastructure-plan.html

There are countless articles like these.  In today’s economically tumultuous times, why would we even be studying building a new road to encourage MORE driving and destroying farmland we will always desperately need? 

My research hasn’t led me to believe the Mid-States Corridor is about safety.  Unfortunately, and I wish it weren’t the case, but my research brings me to the same conclusion as Jason McCoy, who held the meeting in Loogootee last week.  That conclusion is if you have enough money and know the right people, you can get elected to State public offices, create and pass new laws that conveniently allow you to pool private and taxpayer money together, and ultimately build whatever you want “for public purpose” without being bothered by the opinions of the people you’re supposed to represent.  Below are just a couple of old articles outlining how this happened.  

Oct 2018 article – https://www.indianasenaterepublicans.com/road-funding-legislation-leads-to-indot-mid-state-regional-development-authority-partnership

Apr 2017 article – https://www.wamwamfm.com/2017/04/05/jasper-legislators-regional-infrastructure-bill-passes-house/

For those that may not be aware, this newly created Indiana law written and sponsored by Jasper elected officials mentioned in the above articles allowed for the creation of what’s called a Regional Development Authority (RDA).  This RDA is made up of appointed board members, not elected officials.  Without that new law and half the funding for the Tier I EIS coming from private businesses, we wouldn’t even be talking about the Mid-States in 2024.

Did I mention that this appointed RDA was also given Eminent Domain authority in the newly created law?  I’m not sure how it will all shake out, but it appears that local elected officials won’t have to deal with the problem of suing their constituents to take away their land and homes. It will be the appointed RDA insulated from the public coming after our properties. However, you may not be aware, but as a member of the public, you can attend these RDA meetings. The next quarterly RDA meeting is this Friday May 3rd, 2024, at 4 p.m. at Huntingburg Event Center.  

Our taxpayer dollars could be much better spent on transportation options that do not continue to contribute to climate change, more drug and human trafficking, destroying forests and farmland, relocating people and businesses, and increasing pollution, making an area with bad air quality even worse.  Let’s demand that state taxes are spent more wisely across Indiana! 

Marisa Durcholz
Directly Impacted Jasper Resident