I-69 News

Last month’s Critical Mass was a blast, even though it was small. 15 people hopped
on their bicycles and rode throughout downtown Bloomington and the IU campus. We
did the familiar old anti-car and anti-traffic chants, while also blowing on kazoos
and carrying a banner against I-69. The ride went quickly (as you could expect in a
town of Bloomington’s size), with a good part of the city covered in half an hour.

Towards the end, we biked to the western edge of downtown and rode into the One City
Center building (at 7th and College) where the Bloomington I-69 planning office is.
While having fun in the lobby, we asked other corporate tenants of the building to
evict the planning office (which was itself closed at the time). The planning
office is run by Michael Baker Jr. Inc., an infrastructure development firm
specializing in chilling public opposition to projects like highways.

Afterwards, unfortunately, a group of bicyclists was stopped by police in connection
with the demonstration at the office. The stop and questioning session didn’t have
any basis though, and the riders refused to turn over their IDs, after the police
admitted that they didn’t have any good cause to stop the group. So, the riders
were photographed as they left, while the cops made ridiculous threats that the
riders were banned from the One City Center building.

Regardless of police repression, April’s Critical Mass was a bunch of fun, and we’re
excited to continue the ride this month and from now on.

We also just received word of a new bike tour along the finalized/proposed route. Hopefully this will go well for the folks in Roadblock EF! and SMASH I-69.

BIKE TOUR MAY 7th-13th

Roadblock Earth First! and SMASH I-69 will be hosting a energetic 6
day bike tour of southern Indiana, starting May 7th and continuing
until the 13th. I-69, a.k.a. “the NAFTA superhighway”, is purposed to
run from Indianapolis to Evansville in Indiana, though eventually
from the Michigan/Canada border to the Texas border with Mexico
where it will link up with Plan Puebla Panama infrastructure.

The bike tour will leave Bloomington, Indiana and will ride
southward as close to the proposed I-69 route as possible. The tour
will stop in towns and camp along the route, getting to know the
land and the people that will be negatively affected by this road
project.

The tour will cover around 90 miles, ending at the begning of the
proposed route at the intersection of Interstate 64 and 164 in
Gibson county. The tour group will meet with community activists in
southern Indiana and share tactics and strategies for effectively
resisting the road.

For those interested and who live within an easy traveling distance
of Bloomington, there will be a planning meeting in Meeting Room 1A
of the Monroe County Public Library at 7pm on Wednesday, April 25th.

Participants who have extra time are planning on staying in
southern Indiana to carry out a listening project, where those
whose land and homes will be destroyed will be visited in order to
collect their stories of resistance as well as share tactics and
strategies.

Roadblock Earth First! and SMASH I-69 invite all of those who want
to participate to join us in Bloomington for a fun filled week of
biking, camping, and road resistance. For more information, email
garlicisgreat@hushmail.com.

New Terrain I-69 Funding - Give Them an Inch and They’ll Take a Mile
From All-Tolled:

New Legislation specifies that New Terrain I-69 will receive $119
million to begin construction at the Evansville end. That is 10% of INDOT’s two
year budget to BEGIN just one highway. New highway cost models developed by INDOT
have elicited conservative estimates that the cost of the entire route now stands at
$4 billion. So, this ’seed money’ wouldn’t get Indiana very far. Proponents of the
new terrain route are hoping that if they can get it start, the state will be forced
to come up with the remaining money — give them an inch and they’ll take a mile.

This news is a couple weeks old, but we thought it was interesting on a number of levels and wanted to make sure everyone had heard about it. Factoring this in, the $700 million that the state supposedly has to begin construction next year seems like it won’t go nearly as far as INDOT has claimed.

I-69 - New Cost Estimates

Three groups, Citizens for Appropriate Rural
Roads - the Hoosier Environmental Council - the Environmental Law and Policy Center,
have sent out a press release noting that INDOT’s projected cost for the 13 mile
section 1 of I-69 has nearly doubled. The Tier 1 estimate from 2003, placed the
cost of section 1 at $122 million. The draft Tier 2 estimate uses a new costing
formula that brings the projections in line with the true costs of recently
completed projects throughout Indiana - thus a more trustworthy cost projection.
The draft Tier 2 estimate for section 1 is now $230 million, a 89% increase. This
new costing formula will be used to estimate the cost of each of the 6 sections.
Since section 1 is the flattest terrain, it is a conservative assumption that the
remaining sections will only increase in cost by 89%. Applying that formula, they
came up with a price tag of the Evansville to Indy leg of I-69 at $3.5 billion.
Adding an even more modest increase for the Kentucky to Evansville leg brings the
total cost of building I-69 at a staggering $3.9 billion.

The three groups once again urged the Governor and
INDOT to drop the new terrain route and use the Common Sense route: I-70 / US 41 –
remember, I-70 is already built and US 41 could be upgraded to freeway standards as
funds allow.

Governor Daniels has at least temporarily abandoned his proposals to build the Indiana Commerce Connector (which was basically a privatized extension of I-69) and the Illiana Toll Road. We have to remember that this victory is due to the strength of our communities and our resistance - these horrific road plans were only withdrawn because of the willingness of people across Indiana to stand up and say no, and also, to begin organizing with others to resist.

As we take on and defeat insane road project after insane road project, it is also increasingly clear that we can take on and defeat I-69, especially since its been weakened by this news.

The Indy Star article:

Daniels abandons Indy-area toll road
Decision follows fierce criticism, raises questions on I-69 project

By Mary Beth Schneider
mary.beth.schneider@indystar.com

In the face of blistering public opposition, Gov. Mitch Daniels on Saturday dropped his controversial proposal to build a toll road bypass east and south of Indianapolis.

He also drastically scaled back plans for a similar project in Northwestern Indiana.
Daniels conceded defeat in a letter to legislative leaders, saying that in the wake of public hearings, “it is clear to me that we are far from the degree of consensus that is necessary before embarking on major public works projects of high local impact.”

The news, delivered in an unusual Saturday announcement by the governor’s office, followed months of criticism about the Indianapolis-area proposal.

Daniels’ decision also raises questions about the proposed Indianapolis-to-Evansville extension of I-69, which was slated to be paid for in part with proceeds from a private entity that would have built and operated the Indy-area bypass.

Read the whole article here.

“Senate Bill 1 (SB 1) gives the governor unchecked power to make a deal with a private company that would evict thousands of
Indiana residents from their homes and farms.” — Chesterton Tribune, Feb. 13, 2007

The Indiana state government is rushing to pass bills authorizing the sale and construction of new toll roads- particularly the Indiana Commerce Connector in Central Indiana and the Illiana Toll Road in NW Indiana. The next step for Senate Bill 1 is a series of Field Meetings hosted by the House Transportation Committee in counties that will be devastated by these roads. Regardless of whether we can stop the law in the legislature, these meetings will be an important place to demonstrate resistance to these roads and build ties with others opposing the projects.

March 20 (Tuesday) 2007 6:00 - 8:00 pm (EDT)
House Transportation Committee Field Hearing
Morgan County Fairgrounds Community Building, 1749 Hospital Drive (Ind.
252), Martinsville

March 22 (Thursday) 6:00 - 8:00 pm (EDT)
House Transportation Committee Field Hearing
Indiana Downs, 4200 N Michigan Rd (just off I-74), Shelbyville

March 26 (Monday) 6:00 - 8:00 pm (EDT)
House Transportation Committee Field Hearing
Franklin College, 101 Branigin Blvd, Franklin - call (317) 232-9621 for details

March 28 (Wednesday) 6:00 - 8:00 pm (EDT)
House Transportation Committee Field Hearing
Greenfield Central High School Auditorium, 810 N Broadway St, Greenfield

On February 26, 20 people shut down the Cintra-Zachry office in Austin, TX with a
festive occupation. Cintra-Zachry is responsible for building long stretches of the
TTC and Cintra is involved in I-69 construction in Indiana.* (summary)

(We also found some photos at Austin Indymedia)

Following this year’s Earth First! Winter Organizers Conference, affinity groups
planned a direct action targeting the corporation Cintra-Zachry. Cintra is involved
in roadbuilding and privatization plots around the world, especially in Texas,
Indiana, and Mesoamerica, encompassing the infamous I-69 free trade corridor.

In order to confront the road-builders and corporations which profit from
“development”, activists festively took over the Cintra-Zachry office in Austin with
noise-makers, instruments, banners, and chants to disrupt the planning process and
express dissent. Confusion reigned as Earth First!ers played trumpets, performed a
kiss-in, banged on drums and shouted in opposition to destructive superhighway
projects. There were no arrests. Similar office demonstrations have erupted along
the proposed route of Interstate 69.

Cintra-Zachry owns several pieces of the Trans-Texas Corridor, a highly contested
road building project which hopes to facilitate the easy transport of goods from
Mexico and Central America for trade on American markets. Its parent company,
Cintra, also has its hands in similar free-trade enabling infrastructure projects
across the globe, including the proposed “NAFTA Superhighway” Interstate 69, planned to stretch from the Canadian border in Port Huron, MI and to connect to the TransTexas Corridor and other highways linking to the vast development project in Mesoamerica called Plan Puebla Panama.

The TTC, I-69 and the PPP are all under harsh criticism for the ecological devastation and displacement of communities which they will cause. Additionally, the massive construction of these infrastructure networks (which includes power plants, factories, sweat shops, hydro-electric dams, dry canals, ports and airports in Mesoamerica) will only tighten the grip of neoliberal capitalism on a region already facing widespread exploitation.

More action is needed across the route and throughout the hemisphere if we are to
stop these highways! With these actions we can both defend our homes and bioregions and act in solidarity with struggles against the PPP in Mesoamerica.

Austin protest targets toll road ‘tyranny’

Web Posted: 03/02/2007 11:44 PM CST

Gary Scharrer
Austin Bureau

AUSTIN — A protest against toll roads highlighted a rally on the Capitol steps Friday, but the Texas Independence Day holiday put folks in the mood to raise hell about other grievances as well.

Many also complained about a national animal identification tag. Some grumbled about the state’s loss of control of its borders. A few warned about the coming “North American Union.” And some excoriated the United Nations for wanting “to take your gun,” exhorting anyone within earshot to “get us out of the U.N.”

The “liberty or death” chant of a thousand or more protesters marching up Congress Avenue to the Capitol conveyed a decidedly serious intent on an otherwise sunny Friday afternoon.

Famed blues guitarist Jimmie Vaughan elevated those feelings midway through the rally when the spotlight fell on him, and both he and audience connected with such lyrics as “I got the blues about tyranny” … “Don’t want no shackles on me” and “Down with Big Brother.”

Much of the crowd quickly joined him.

“I want to be free. It’s all about liberty,” Vaughan said later. “I was born here. I’m going to die here, and I don’t want to give it away to somebody else.”

Many of the protesters fear that state leaders are going to give away Texas soil to a foreign country via toll roads. The Spanish company Cintra could build some of the state’s toll roads under a 50-year contract.

“We feel that if we don’t get heard now, we’re going to be paying it out for the next 50 or 75 years. We’re very upset with our own government supporting these foreign intrusions,” said San Antonian Robert Throckmorton, a retired Air Force pilot.

Read the rest of the story at San Antonio Express News site.

Reposted from another newswire:

15 people demonstrated last Thursday in Lexington, Kentucky, against Wilbur Smith
and Associates, a multinational engineering firm that has had a role in planning
both the I-69 corridor in the U.S. and the Plan Puebla Panama “development” scheme
in Mexico and Central America.

The two projects, which are designed as the physical infrastructure for free trade
agreements like NAFTA and CAFTA, are also physically linked. Where I-69 ends at
the Brownsville-Matamoros border crossing, the Atlantic corridor highways of the
PPP begin. The projected road link-up will be vital to the emerging free
trade-based economy, with about 50% of NAFTA traffic crossing at this one point,
once the highways are completed.

The demonstration last Thursday was also a step forward in spreading resistance to
the road in Kentucky. A wide swathe of the western region of the state will be
destroyed to facilitate these hemisphere-wide trade plans. Demonstrators shut
down the WSA office and were nearly forced to physically defend themselves after
an office manager attempted to attack someone carrying a bullhorn in order to
steal it.

More info on WSA can be found at http://www.wilbursmith.com

Last Thursday’s meeting in Oakland City, IN, organized by CARR (Citizens for Appropriate Railroads) was not nearly as productive as we had hoped. Though about 30 landowners were in attendance, enthusiasm was painfully low. CARR had intended the focus of the meeting to be on resistance of I-69 via letters-to-your-senators, but their uninspiring/uninspired call to action was further undermined by an ‘eminent domain’ lawyer who dominated about 75% of the conversation with advice on what to do when the government inevitably DOES seize your land.
If the meeting accomplished anything, it was to expose how desperately the I-69 resistance movement in that region needs to be organized.