FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

April 23, 2003

Contacts:
Andy Ruff Bloomington City Council 812-349-3409
Turk Roman Vigo County Council 812-232-3390
Rod Henry Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce 812-232-2391
Andy Knott Hoosier Environmental Council 317-685-8800
Tom or Sandra Tokarski Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads 812-825-9555
(alternate number for Sandra Tokarski today) 812-332-0025
John Moore Environmental Law and Policy Center 312-795-3706

94% of Interstate 69 Comments Oppose New Terrain Route

Governor O'Bannon asked citizens what they think about the proposed new Interstate 69 highway, and the answer has come back loud and clear.

94% of Hoosiers who submitted comments to the Indiana Department of Transportation oppose "new-terrain" routes for I-69 such as the one O'Bannon prefers, according to a new analysis released today.

Of a total of 21,873 comments expressing a route preference, 20,467 - or 94% - either oppose new-terrain routes or support the Interstate 70/US 41 option, which uses existing and upgraded highways. Only 1,406 comments support a new-terrain route.

The public comments were submitted last fall, but O'Bannon and INDOT have not released information about the comments. Two citizens groups, the Hoosier Environmental Council and Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads, released the numbers today after reviewing and analyzing the comments.

In January 2003, O'Bannon announced that he prefers a $1.7 billion new-terrain route for I-69 through Bloomington, rather than the $900 million I-70/US 41 option through Terre Haute. O'Bannon's announcement did not include any acknowledgment that Hoosiers' comments overwhelmingly oppose the route he prefers.

"By a 15-to-1 margin, Hoosiers told Governor O'Bannon not to waste their money on a new-terrain I-69," said Andy Knott, air and energy policy director for the Hoosier Environmental Council. "O'Bannon doesn't seem to care what citizens think. We're confident Indiana's next governor will listen to the people instead of ignoring them."

"This is a landslide victory for common sense," said Tom Tokarski, president of Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads. "Never before have so many spoken so clearly of their desire to protect Hoosier farms, homes and forests; and to conserve our dwindling tax dollars."

"INDOT repeatedly has assured us that public comments matter," said John Moore, from the Environmental Law and Policy Center. "Well, the public has said very clearly that the state doesn't need to waste up to a billion dollars to build a wasteful and destructive new highway."

HEC and CARR's analysis includes all of the comments that INDOT received during a public comment period from July 31 to November 7, 2002. The comments take the form of letters, postcards, comment cards, e-mails and transcripts of phone messages to the project's hotline as well as statements at public hearings. In addition to the 21,873 comments expressing a route preference, 368 others did not express a clear route preference or simply asked questions of the project study team.

According to INDOT's own studies, Governor O'Bannon's preferred new-terrain route would cost $800 million or more than the I-70/US 41 route and save only ten minutes in travel time. The new-terrain route would also destroy nearly 7,000 acres of farms, forests and wetlands.

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