A leading Hoosier economist Wednesday told supporters of a U.S. 41/I-70 upgrade for Interstate 69 that a new-terrain route wouldn’t be worth the money.

"There’s no question a new-terrain route is shorter," said Bill Styring, a senior fellow at Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank based in Indianapolis. "There is also no question it would be much more expensive. The question is how you value things."

Afterward, the institute said Styring was not speaking on its behalf.

Styring spoke to the second annual gathering of forces who think U.S. 41/I-70 is the most environmentally and economically sound route for I-69.

The "I-69 2000 Common Sense Conference" met in Indianapolis on Wednesday, where between 30 and 40 leading supporters of U.S. 41/I-70 talked about where they were in their fight and where they wanted to go.

They knew Styring, who has crunched numbers for every major fiscal body in the Indiana Statehouse, had an opinion to offer them. However, Styring cut his comments short because he had the flu and a 104 degree temperature to go along with it.

But before he left, he told them that from an economic standpoint, a new-terrain route "doesn’t come out right."

"The idea is that you provide an outlay of capital now for a stream of benefits that comes later, supposedly," Styring said. "It’s kind of like if you said, ‘Loan me a dollar now and I’ll pay you a dollar back in 25 years. A dollar won’t be worth as much then.’"

There’s more involved than just building a road, Styring said. There are other costs, such as buying new right of way. That’s not so much a problem if the road relies on U.S. 41 and I-70, he said.

"You could fight a nuclear war on sections of U.S. 41 and not hurt anybody," he joked.

He compared the mentality of those who wanted a new road to the mentality of old towns that wanted railroads for fear of being left behind — and now, railroads are overbuilt.

Styring was the featured speaker, but the boldest was Mark Schreiber, the Libertarian candidate for lieutenant governor. The three candidates for governor were invited to give their views, and Schreiber spoke on behalf of Libertarian challenger Andrew Horning.

Schreiber opposes a new-terrain I-69, but that’s not important, he said.

"I don’t care about your road. To me, (a new-terrain I-69) is just another line on a map," Schreiber said. "I’m here because the other two guys aren’t. This isn’t about meeting here to talk about a road. That won’t get their attention.

"You have two choices. You can take the Bobby Knight route and lay back and enjoy it, or you can get politically motivated and join the Libertarian Party," he said. "When you leave their party, they’ll pay attention. If you wait to have a political epiphany until a bulldozer’s poised down the street, you won’t have a choice."

Bert Williams with the Greater Terre Haute, Ind., Chamber of Commerce said he didn’t expect Democratic Gov. Frank O’Bannon or Republican challenger David McIntosh to attend the event, but they were invited anyway. Both prefer a route from Evansville to Indianapolis that passes near Bloomington, Ind., and would likely be espousing a point of view unpopular with those at the conference.

"The Evansville area is a swing area and they have to pander for votes," Williams said.

Jim Morley, an Evansville engineer who helped conduct an independent study on I-69 costs and travel time, represented the only voice of dissent at the meeting. He was not invited, but also not unwelcome, said John Moore, staff attorney with the Environmental Law and Policy Center of the Midwest.

Morley confronted Williams and other speakers about their evidence for saying a route through Bloomington would only be 10 miles shorter than the U.S. 41/I-70 upgrade. Morley said that’s impossible.

"You were an engineer," he said to Williams, who chairs the I-69 steering committee for the Terre Haute business group. "Sit down with a map and prove it. How can you have any credibility with something if you don’t use facts?"

Williams said he was relying on a previous Indiana Department of Transportation study, but that he would meet with Morley to discuss the mileage difference.

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