At The Urbanophile: "Indiana’s Bridge Deal Boondoggle, Part 4 – A Better Plan."

Aaron M. Renn's series concludes with the fourth installment, and suggestions for a better Ohio River Bridges Project plan.

Indiana’s Bridge Deal Boondoggle, Part 4 – A Better Plan, by Aaron M. Renn, at The Urbanophile.

In the first three parts of this series, I discussed how Indiana so badly botched its negotiation with Kentucky on the Louisville bridges project that its share of the project went up by $200 million at the same time the total project declined in cost by $1.5 billion, how this will result in $432 million being drained out of regular highway funds to cover a resulting tolling gap, how tolling likely results in Indiana paying even more, and the significant risks Indiana has taken on by agreeing to build a tunnel in Kentucky. Amazing as it sounds, Indiana’s biggest road project is now a $795 million, 1.4 mile highway in the state of Kentucky.

But just because I believe this deal is bad doesn’t mean I think the project itself is all bad. Indeed, I’m a strong supporter of the East End bridge, which is a generational investment for that part of the state. I also think the $1.5 billion in savings identified so far are great and a good start at getting costs under control on this project. But there’s still more we can do. So with that in mind, I’ll outline the changes I’d make to move the project forward:

#1 – Kill the Drumanard Tunnel
#2 – Adopt 8664
#3 – Revisit the Cost and Toll Revenue Allocations