Imagine Columbus without Interstate 65 serving as a major lifeline. Some folks don’t have to imagine that — they lived it and can remember times before that vital link connected us to Indianapolis, Louisville and points between and beyond. Back in the ’60s and ’70s, this new road cut hours from lengthy trips, and it’s been a huge factor in our area’s growth since.
The US interstate system until lately pretty much bypassed Evansville, Indiana’s third-largest city, as well as southwestern portions of Indiana, but no more. Interstate 69, connecting Evansville to Indianapolis, is at long last complete.
The road was a long time coming and not without significant opposition. That debate will go on, but we’re of the opinion that I-69’s long-term benefits, serving the region and the state’s people, outweigh any detriments.
That’s particularly true for folks in Evansville, which by way of Indiana’s quirky geography is in the Hoosier State even though it is as far south in latitude as the Chesapeake Bay off the Virginia shore. Anyone who made the journey from Indianapolis to Evansville prior to I-69 knew to plan for potentially a daylong venture featuring many stops, starts and slowdowns along the way.
The three Republican Indiana governors who steered this I-69 project — Mitch Daniels, Mike Pence and Eric Holcomb — took a well-earned victory lap of sorts Tuesday. They jointly came together for a “Connecting the Crossroads” ceremony that officially opened the final leg connecting I-69 to I-465 on the southwest side of Indianapolis.
Daniels deserves credit for making construction happen after plans languished for decades on drawing boards. It took boldness, but Daniels had strong bipartisan backing from leaders in Evansville and southwestern Indiana. Even so, funding construction was a tough sell that almost didn’t make it through the Statehouse.
The completion of I-69 is a big deal in every sense of the word, and not just for Evansville. It’s also an audacious example of the kind of big ideas that government — and only government — can bring into being.
It took 16 years to complete construction of the 142 miles of I-69. That’s a long time. But consider this comparison: work on I-65 north of Louisville began in 1958, and its final section in Indianapolis was finished in 1974 — also 16 years — and that road is substantially shorter, at about 115 miles.
Of course, there is no comparing the impact that I-65 had on the state and region to what we can expect from I-69. I-65 originated with plans for the federal interstate network in the mid-1950s. Those new roads rapidly became the modern network of interstates we’ve come to rely on, if not take for granted. They transformed the American landscape.
We view the completion of I-69 between Indianapolis and Evansville as an example of government at the local, state and federal level serving people in one of the most tangible ways possible: facilitating the free movement of people and goods. Simply put, that benefits everyone.
But not only that, if you’ve driven the new section of I-69 south from Indianapolis to Evansville, you may have been pleasantly surprised by the scenic beauty along the way. If this is a new road for you, it’s well worth the drive.
