Infrastructure’s Importance: By: Greg Wathen

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Greg Wathen

Breaking news – 175,000 Evansville metro communities and residents are without power bringing business and traffic to a screeching halt! Fortunately for us, it didn’t happen in Southwest Indiana. This tragic event did occur though in India with the recent blackout affecting an area encompassing about 670 million people, or roughly 10 percent of the world’s population. It trapped coal miners, stranded train passengers and caused huge traffic jams in India’s capital city. The blackout shut down businesses, hospitals, schools, waste treatment facilities, telecommunication systems; nearly collapsing the country’s economy, which in turn would have a global ripple economic effect at a time when it could be least absorbed. Just think how many financial, legal and technical sector services that have been outsourced to companies located in India from the U.S.

How important is infrastructure; how dependent are we on things like cell phones, clean water, sewers, and highways to carry out our daily lives? The 175,000 figure mentioned above represents one-half of the Evansville metro’s population and if power were interrupted for days on end to half of the region, how would that event change our lives. And, though we think infrastructure failure to the extent experienced in India couldn’t materialize in the United States there are still areas within the tri-state where adequate broadband capabilities don’t exist or insufficient water capacity is still a problem.

India’s power sector has long been considered a potentially crippling hindrance to the country’s economic prospects. Part of the problem is access; more than 300 million people in India still have no electricity. But India’s power generation capacity also has not kept pace with growth as demand regularly outpaces supply.

In many ways, Southwest Indiana has been blessed with an abundance of infrastructure capacity but there are still gaps that exist. As Interstate 69 becomes a reality with the opening of more than 70 new miles before the year ends, one of the foundation pieces of the transportation puzzle is finally coming clearer into focus. Other areas though such as broadband need a more focused, regional and collaborative approach to meet the challenge. Unfortunately, sometimes it takes a disaster for change to occur.

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11 COMMENTS

  1. During the ice storm we were without power for 11 days. Some line went down with limbs, but many just from the weight of the ice. The same thing happened in ’77 & ’78.

  2. For the price of I-69 (which is going to be way over $5 billion when the bridge, the road repairs, and the modifications are made 20-30 years from now) we basically could build most, if not all, of what you are wanting to build in your article.

    So my first question is why build an interstate that is 84 miles LONGER than existing interstates going from Laredo, TX to Port Huron,ON, does nothing for the safety of those going to Chicago or going from Terre Haute to Bloomington, and does nothing for our current businesses such as Toyota, Ameriqual, Park 41, etc etc? Furthermore, US 41 has CSX tracks running parallel to it (so does I-70) which makes it prime land for manufacturing products such as windmills.

    My next question(s) is this: Are you aware of high speed rail? Do you know that the Indiana High Speed Rail Association, along with HEC, is hosting meetings with cities these next few weeks?

    http://www.indianahighspeedrail.org/

    Are you aware that Evv is one of the few, if not the only, cities in the Midwest and US in general not preparing for HSR?…

    http://evansvillerail.blogspot.com/2012/06/outside-of-evansville-entire-midwest-is.html

    Rail was one of the mayor’s campaign promises. Do you know if he plans on honoring this promise? Is his office and/or your office exploring hsr?

    • I agree with you. I-69 is a big waste of money when other NEEDS should have taken president. The highways we have are not maintained. Have you driven I-70 lately? Please! I think investigating HSR is a good plan. But keeping what we have in repair is vital. This is not to mention the restructuring of the electric grid system to last into the future. And we must begin to deal with water shortages that are destined to continue and worsen. We need to address energy creation with less pollution. And yes I mean without coal. It cannot last forever. I-69 was really really low on the list.

      • Agreed, I-69, in its current formation, should not have been built period. It is plowing through over 2,000 acres of farm lands and is going right through the Patoka Wild Life Refuge which has resulted in wetlands being filled and eliminated.

        The people here in Evansville don’t seem to have a problem with it. Something tells me if INDOT was building an interstate through Wesselman Woods that was only supported by Bloomington, we’d be hearing a different tune.

  3. For the price of I-69 (which is going to be way over $5 billion when the bridge, the road repairs, and the modifications are made 20-30 years from now) we basically could build most, if not all, of what you are wanting to build in your article.

    So my first question is why build an interstate that is 84 miles LONGER than existing interstates going from Laredo, TX to Port Huron,ON, does nothing for the safety of those going to Chicago or going from Terre Haute to Bloomington, and does nothing for our current businesses such as Toyota, Ameriqual, Park 41, etc etc? Furthermore, US 41 has CSX tracks running parallel to it (so does I-70) which makes it prime land for manufacturing products such as windmills.

  6. Joe, it has now been over 2 weeks since I asked the questions above. I don’t see the answers to them yet. Have you received any emails from Mr. Wathen in regards to high speed rail?

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