Commissioner requests continued review of Midstates Corridor; flags local match and roadway relinquishment questions

A commissioner updated the board and public on Nov. 3 about the Midstates Corridor (also called Mid 6 Corridor) outreach and said the project team has requested public and local‑government comments by Nov. 5.

The commissioner said the corridor study originally assumed a 10 percent local match but that newer project estimates place the local contribution in a preliminary range of roughly $90 million to $135 million for the study area; INDOT and project staff said the match could be met in part by relinquishment or local work related to U.S. 231 rights and that multiple funding sources and approaches were being discussed.

"The 10% was based on total project cost," the commissioner said, quoting project staff. "Based on the preliminary estimates, this number range was $90,000,000 to a $135,000,000 in local match." The commissioner said he would not personally vote to commit county funds without more specificity and that the county will continue to ask for detail on local impacts and obligations.

Board members noted the project team expects to build design elements that would be constructed as part of the mid‑corridor project; project staff told the commissioner that local realignments shown in project maps would generally be constructed under the corridor program and not be immediate county obligations. The commissioner asked the project team to appear at the Nov. 17 meeting for further discussion.

Ending: Commissioners said they will continue to solicit details from the Midstates project team about local cost exposure and timing and will host a project representative at the Nov. 17 meeting for follow-up.