Residents try to block proposed highway in southern Indiana

JASPER, Ind. (WISH) — The regional growth authority Mid-States Hall is teaming up with INDOT to construct a route linking Southern and Central Indiana.

After learning a number of routes, it settled on a proposal paralleling Freeway 231, bypassing the cities of Jasper, Huntingburg, and Loogootee.

The whole span would begin at I-64 close to the Kentucky state line and finish on the I-69 interchange close to the Crane Naval Base, south of Bloomington.

“By placing in a brand new terrain freeway, touring between Jasper and Indianapolis, you’ll save between 2 and 5 minutes,” Mark Nowartarski of the coalition in opposition to the Mid-States Hall stated.

Different residents, like Marisa Durcholz of Jasper fear about shedding their land throughout development of the highway.

“It’s fairly non-public. It’s located down a personal lane, we have now no neighbors,” Durcholz stated.

Proponents say the highway will drive extra commerce into South Central Indiana communities that might be in any other case remoted from the remainder of the state.

Nowatarski stated the venture is a misuse of taxpayer funds, particularly since Governor Holcomb introduced a $72M funding into Freeway 231 final yr.

“You’re destroying folks’s houses, folks’s farmlands, companies, and establishments to place a billion greenback, 54 mile new terrain freeway in,” Nowatarski stated.

A consultant with Mid-States didn’t return an electronic mail to WISH-TV looking for remark.

Residents have till Might thirty first to touch upon the proposal both by electronic mail at data@midstatescorridor.com or on the venture workplace positioned at 850 Faculty Avenue
Jasper, IN 47546.