EVANSVILLE — U.S. Rep. Larry Bucshonsaid Tuesday the money to complete Interstate-69 from Bloomington to Indianapolis isn't available to him — but he pledged to help state officials any way he can.
Bucshon, a Republican and first-term congressman is seeking re-election to the 8th District House seat, made the remarks after a news conference at Evansville Regional Airport during which he lauded the progress made on I-69 to date.
Bucshon was accompanied by Rep. Bill Shuster, a Pennsylvania Republican who lavished praise on him while casting him as a leader in Congress on transportation issues. Also present: Sam Sarvis, deputy commissioner of major programs for the Indiana Department of Transportation. The men had just returned from a helicopter tour of I-69 construction from Evansville to an area just south of Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center.
"It'll all depend on the next governor and the Legislature," Bucshon said, noting that all three of this year's candidates for governor have said completing I-69 from Evansville to Indianapolis is a priority for them.
But none of the candidates — Republican Mike Pence, Democrat John Gregg and Libertarian Rupert Boneham — has said where the money would come from.
The "Major Moves" deal — Gov. Mitch Daniels' 2006 decision to lease a northern Indiana toll road for 75 years to a Spanish-Australian consortium in exchange for $3.85 billion in upfront cash — roughly doubled what Indiana has had to spend on new road construction in recent years. But that money is all spoken for.
The pot of federal highway dollars available to states continues to shrink, while state gas-tax revenue has dropped and federal earmarks have been severely cut.
Given those conditions, Bucshon said, it likely will fall to the next governor and the Legislature to find the money.
"From the federal standpoint, we'll be as supportive as we can, and if there are things that we can access to help fund the highway, we will," said Bucshon, a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
I-69 is on schedule to connect Evansville to Bloomington by 2014. In a matter of weeks — Bucshon named "late November" — I-69 will open from Evansville to Crane. The next section will go from Crane to Bloomington. There it will connect with State Road 37, a four-lane, divided highway with traffic lights and crossroads, that runs southwest of Indianapolis.
But no money is in place to complete the freeway from Bloomington to Indianapolis, which would be I-69's potentially highest-traffic and most expensive section. The bulk of those costs would be in acquiring the rights to residences, businesses and other properties to facilitate interchanges and road widening.
Some state legislators and Gov. Mitch Daniels have suggested they would not strongly object to putting the $2 billion-plus I-69 project on hold at Bloomington — at least until new money can be found. They cite the presence of Ind. 37, which connects Bloomington to Indianapolis.
Bucshon is optimistic the necessary money will be found eventually.
"I take (Pence, Gregg and Boneham) at their word, and I think we will need to work with the communities along the 37 corridor and work that out," Bucshon said. "I know there are still some right-of-way issues there. But I think that overall, over time, the highway will get completed."