15 July 2008

Indiana: Protests mar ribbon-cutting for I-69 extension

AP (via Indianapolis Star) - Protests, celebration frame I-69 work

Since, eventually (read: most likely not within my lifetime), I-69 is supposed to run through Louisiana, I've looked at the entirety of the progress needed for the route. Surprise, surprise. Anti-freeway forces have been responsible for holding it up a lot just within Indiana. Not just on the extension going on now, but on the proposed (and abandoned) in-city routing of the existing route as well. So right now it ends at a 3di. What a disgrace. (Only the ending at a 3di part, though. They could have routed it along part of the I-465 loop (as they did with I-74) to end at another 2di, I-70.)

...Anyway.

"Police officers arrested more than a dozen protesters Monday as they blocked the entrance to an asphalt plant that will supply materials to build the 142-mile highway linking Evansville and Indianapolis. The protesters, who will be charged with trespassing and resisting arrest, had bound themselves with chains, police said."

The anti-freeway movement is alive and well in Indiana, but we all knew that, right? However, you'd think Mississippi's DOT was running this project, because at this point it is going to go through even with vehement opposition. Even with the environmental impact, a judge has said that those impacts don't constitute a violation of law. In essence, a big fat "Nothing you can do, bugger off already" to the opposition.

As a result, the project will be starting soon, and the stretch that I figured would be one of the last to get done will instead be getting off the ground very soon.

Ah, the hopelessness-inspiring inevitability of it all...

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