By ANNIE GOELLER, Daily Journal of Johnson County staff writer
After the county depletes a $1 million federal grant, studies on how to quickly move motorists from State Road 37 to Interstate 65 and beyond won't be complete.
Two engineering companies that were paid $990,000 to study and design possible alignments and the effects the project would have on the environment said the money isn't enough to complete all the work that needs to be done.
The county already is seeking other funds on top of the grant awarded in November 2005.
The project, which would speed traffic between State Road 37 on the west side of the county and I-65 and the Shelby County line on the east side, has been studied for nearly 20 years.
After three studies starting in 1988, the county isn't ready to break ground and doesn't have enough money to buy the land needed for the project.
Jerry Ott, who helped with a 2002 study done by a group of students and engineers through Leadership Johnson County, said that's ridiculous.
The multiple studies in past years should lead to a final product, he said.
"We've studied it enough. We ought to know enough to pull the trigger and do something," Ott said.
A county council member and a commissioner agreed.
"Sometimes you can study it to death and spend hundreds of thousands and not get anywhere. Unfortunately, it seems like that's what we are doing," said John Price, a council member who also worked on past studies when he was director of the highway department.
Commissioner Tom Kite said he wanted to research the question of why the $1 million isn't enough because he didn't understand, either.
At the end of the one-year study period and when the $1 million federal grant runs out, the county won't have a finalized design plan or a full study on the project's environmental effects. And with a recent change the commissioners agreed to, the county will end up with a less detailed study on the project's environmental effects than what was originally expected.
Commissioner Mitch Ripley and two engineers said the $1 million would never be enough to complete all the studies on the project.
One estimate is that studies are about 10 percent of construction costs, which have been estimated at more than $20 million per route in the 1990s.
Previous studies weren't as in-depth as what engineers are doing now, which will give the county the information the state and federal transportation departments would need when approving funding and plans for the project, Ripley said.
What engineers are preparing will be the third large-scale study of the project in the past 20 years.
Previous studies already have identified possible routes and the land that would be needed for them, Price said.
"I don't mind studying it again if they'll just do it. Just get it done," Ott said.
Price would like to see the county put money toward construction of the road, not just studies, he said.
In the 1980s and '90s, the county partnered with the federal government to pay for a study of Smith Valley, Olive Branch, Stones Crossing and Smokey Row roads.
The study looked at the environmental impacts of the project but did not lay out any design plans, said Gary Vandegriff, highway director.
That study cost about $164,000. The county paid 25 percent, or about $41,000, and federal funds covered the rest, he said.
In 2002, a group of engineers and Leadership Johnson County students took on the east-west corridor as a class project.
For about $2,000 - the cost of copies and paper - the group identified a possible route along Whiteland and Smokey Row roads and looked at how much land would be needed and a future interchange on Interstate 65.
That group's work was incorporated into the county's master development plan.
Those studies were not provided to the engineers, said Ken Minett, who works for Indianapolis-based Butler, Fairman and Seufert on the project.
Price couldn't understand why the county didn't provide the studies, which would have at least given engineers a starting point for their work.
Ripley and Minett called the past studies outdated.
For example, the 2002 study showed the route passing through the town of Whiteland, but with growth, that won't be possible now, Ripley said.
He wants updated studies so the county can begin securing land for the project before growth comes through, he said.
Previous studies also were not as in-depth as the studies being done now, Ripley said.
And none included environmental studies, which are required for any road project, Vandegriff said.
Preliminary designs and plans will identify routes but will also go more in-depth with details such as the type of road needed, he said.
Price said the previous studies still should have been considered.
"Are we going to keep spending money to keep basically hearing the same thing over and over?" he said. "It comes to a point you've got to move forward, make a decision and stick with your decision."
Ripley, Vandegriff and Kite said the next step, after securing more money, is to move ahead with detailed design plans and start buying the land needed.
But people still shouldn't expect the project will happen in the next one to two years, Ripley said.