As the first segment of the new $2-3 billion freeway called I-69 linking Evansville and Indianapolis nears completion, Southwest Indiana leaders are already agitating to build the state's next "massive boondoggle," writes Aaron Renn.
"What this actually shows is that for a lot of people, building highways is an end itself. There will never be a day when people aren’t pushing some sort of massive boondoggle. It may well be that the state hasn’t agreed to build [the so-called I-67]. But it’s also early. Few of Indiana’s major projects, whether that be the Illiana Expressway, I-69, or the Ohio River Bridges, were cooked up by the engineers in INDOT’s planning department. Instead, they were local priorities that over time became 'high priority' projects for the state."
"Without much else to offer economic hope to fading rural areas, small towns, and old small industrial cities, highway construction is easy snake oil solution," he concludes. "No amount of highway construction will ever satiate this never-ending demand for yet more mega-roads."
FULL STORY: Highways, Casinos, and Bridges, Or the Insatiable Demand for Boondoggle Highways
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