Public hearings for the Mid-States’ Corridor ended this summer. People offered feedback on the preferred route selected which is set to run through Daviess, Martin, and Dubois counties to improve connectivity.
Early in 2023, the Federal Highway Administration will review the Environmental Impact Study and public comments to decide how to continue.
The need for a corridor has been examined for more than a decade, and previous studies had been done evaluating options. But themost recent study looks like it has momentum behind it, and that has Loogootee resident Tina McCullough worried about how it will impact her way of life.
She grew up on her family’s farm and raised her own children there. She likes the quiet country life they’ve lived and doesn’t think a corridor is needed.
“There's nowhere to put more land, she said. "And the housing that would be taken out; there's not enough housing as there is in this area. And we don't want to live in a city, we want to live in a rural community. That's why we've been here all our lives.”
The corridor has multiple years of evaluation before construction could start, because of EPA study requirements for major projects.
McCullough said her family is in limbo, discouraged from developing the land for another house or business expansion because the corridor could come through. Her daughter runs a hair salon from her own house on the farm.
"You can't buy ground here. You can't buy land, Daviess County, Martin County, because it's just a premium. People love what they do and where they live.”
And getting to Jasper– the corridor is suggested to go by the east side. Alan Hanselman runs the Schnitzelbank Restaurant on that side of town and his family lives out where the preferred route could pass through.
Hanselman said because the corridor could pass through his family's land, it could influence how much longer they stay in the area and if the younger generation will continue to run the restaurant.
He said there is need for a corridor and better connectivity in the area.
“There's no doubt about it. If you come from Indianapolis, you'll find out why it's not easy to tell somebody how to get here," he said. So that's why I'm not really against it, I'm just against where they're putting it because they're getting too close to this small-town feel.”
The preferred route could cut through land his family lives on. It’s projected todisplace roughly 150 homes. He'd like it to go by another side of town or through a more rural part of the county.
On the west side is Jasper Engines. CEO Doug Bawel said with the number of people who commute in every day, the corridor is necessary. He recalled other infrastructure projects that were unpopular in the past: U.S 231 goes right by his plant and cut through his property when it was built. He said it was the best thing for the community, and it will likely be much the same for the corridor.
"It was safety and it was progress," he said.
Bawel doesn’t discount the corridor will hurt people’s livelihoods, but he sees it as a long-term investment.
"If you're not growing, you're dying. And if we don't try to improve the infrastructure, in southern Indiana, we're just going to be left by the wayside.”
Studies for the corridor project are enabled by a partnership through INDOT and the Mid-States Corridor RDA.
It’s a funding method created by 2017 legislation so local governments can create funds for transit projects and receive contributions from private stakeholders while partnering with INDOT for management.
RDA Chair Mark Schroeder said the RDA doesn’t control what route gets selected and is only there to advocate for connectivity in the region and be a fiscal agent. He says it’s INDOT’s responsibility manage the project’s logistics. The tier 1 impact study done wascontracted to the Lochmueller Group for more than $6 million.
"I think the citizens who are here will immediately benefit from that connectivity in terms of their ability to travel, for employment, and travel for entertainment and travel for other things that improve travel time, does matter.
Mid-States RDA committed $7 million total for the tier 1 study. Schroeder said about 50 percent of that came from local government and the other half from private industry. INDOT added the corridor project to the State Transportation Improvement Plan- which enables federal fund contribution later on.
McCullough shows an area of her family farm, where the corridor is set to pass through.
McCullough sees all this as an unnecessary hardship for her family that will hurt the area. She hopes plans for the corridor don’t go through.
"Our entire family is just in turmoil, as is everyone that's affected by this," she said. "No one can rest because we don't know what's going to happen with our, or their homes and our land."
Preferred route P was identified as the lowest impact on environmental resources and cheapest to build, according to the draft environmental impact statement.
