By Leslie Bonilla Muñiz
Indiana Capital Chronicle
INDIANA — Gov. Eric Holcomb’s $200 million Link 101 road endeavor isn’t moving forward, at least in its original form, following a gloomy cost-benefit analysis and sustained public pushback.
The Indiana Department of Transportation announced Wednesday, May 1, that it had pulled the plug on the project — meant to better connect southeastern Indiana — after it finished evaluating alternative options.
“The milestone marked a logical point to reevaluate this project,” the agency said in a news release, noting that it “continuously reevaluates” its priorities.
The project would’ve created a new state road — 101 — going north-south between U.S. 50 and the Markland Dam Bridge on the Ohio River.
Opponents of the project celebrated the news.
Sen. Jean Leising, R-Oldenburg, said Thursday she was “pleased” to learn INDOT “listened to my concerns as well as those of community members and canceled the Link 101 Corridor Project.”
She first publicly called for the project’s cancellation in March, saying at the time, “While I have tried to remain open-minded on the matter, I stand with the many constituents who have reached out to express their concerns about how the project will impact our communities and their quality of life.”
Republican gubernatorial candidate Jamie Reitenour, a conservative activist, said the project was an example of “overreach and poor planning.”
“They wanted to build a highway that was estimated at $200 million to save 6 to 8 minutes of travel. That highway was targeting a rich area of Indiana land, taking over generational farms and homesteads, and clearly had no support from the people,” Reitenour said in a Wednesday news release.
“When I met with the hard-working residents that have protested for months against this highway, they were distraught and discouraged, but they were not going to give up! I applaud their Hoosier resolve!” she added.
Agency’s Next Steps
INDOT cited ballooning construction costs as a primary reason for the cancellation: past $450 million, up sharply from the original $200 million estimate announced in 2021. The agency said rising material and labor costs was a factor, as well as “challenging terrain.”
The agency indicated that the pricey project wouldn’t have gotten enough use, noting, “lower traffic volumes limit total benefits to users.”
“There has also been widespread opposition voiced to the project, both in public meetings and through project communication channels,” the agency went on to acknowledge.
Instead, INDOT said it would prioritize existing roads in the area.
That could take the form of Alternatives K or L, two other takes on the project featured in an April 2024 Preliminary Alternatives Screening report.
The first option would run for seven miles along existing roadway, with a 45 mile-per-hour speed limit, and 12 miles along new roadway, at a 55 mile-per-hour limit. It would require rehabilitation measures like four-foot shoulders and “design exceptions” for an estimated 28 locations along the alignment.
The second would only run along existing state highways, with no new roads, mostly at a 45 mile-per-hour limit; areas with higher limits would stay that way. Most of the route already has four-foot shoulders; INDOT would widen one area to add space for the shoulders and reconstruct a one-mile chunk of State Road 129 where “the existing alignment cannot be rehabilitated” to a 45 mile-per-hour limit.
Both were developed based on public input to “reduce impacts to the rural setting of the project area,” according to the report.
INDOT said it would reprioritize the money allocated to the project “statewide, including in southeastern Indiana.”
Leising said she hoped the agency would “reconsider” and use the funds exclusively to improve existing infrastructure in the area.
