Conceptual plans for improving highway connections from Indianapolis through southwestern Indiana to Evansville have been contemplated since at least the 1940s. Decades later, within the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 and subsequent federal legislation, Congress designated the route a high-priority corridor as part of a larger plan to extend I-69 from its original terminus in Indianapolis to the Rio Grande in Texas.
For the purposes of evaluating the environmental impacts of construction along the entire U.S. corridor, I-69 was divided into 32 separate segments, each of which could be considered independent projects. The Indianapolis-to-Evansville corridor was one of these 32 segments.
Initially, INDOT evaluated the full Indianapolis-to-Evansville corridor at a high level using what is called a "Tier 1" environmental study. This initial assessment was followed by "Tier 2" studies examining more closely the precise alignment of six sections that comprise the full corridor-each 13 to 29 miles long.
The Tier 1 environmental study began in January 2000 and received final approval from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) in March 2004. The study considered five corridors of 140 to 160 miles in length, encompassing 12 route alternatives in total. The subsequent Tier 2 environmental study for Section 5 began immediately after the Tier 1 approval in April 2004. More than eight years passed before a draft environmental study was completed.
By 2012, the first three sections of the new route, beginning in Evansville and extending north 67 miles, had been completed, and a fourth, 27-mile section continuing to Bloomington had begun construction. (It later opened in December 2015.) INDOT delivered Sections 1 through 4 using a combination of the traditional design-bid-build procurement model, where separate firms design and construct the facility, and the design-build model, where the same firm performs design and construction services. Neither model incorporates private participation in the project's financing or long-term operations and maintenance.