JEFFERSONVILLE — Two more entities are looking to join a lawsuit filed by the conservancy group River Fields Inc. and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet and the Indiana Department of Transportation filed motions Monday to intervene as defendants in a lawsuit filed against the Federal Highway Administration regarding the Ohio River Bridges Project.

INDOT cited its work as one of the co-sponsors of the bridges project as its rationale for joining the lawsuit.

“INDOT is entitled to intervene as a matter of right because its motion is timely; INDOT has a substantial legal interest in the subject of this action; disposition of this action could impair INDOT’s interests; and INDOT’s interests are not adequately represented by other parties to the litigation,” according to the motion filed by Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller.

According to a press release from KYTC, the Kentucky transportation entity is seeking to become a party to the suit to help ensure the Ohio River Bridges Project moves forward.

River Fields and the National Trust filed the lawsuit against the highway administration in September 2009 and claimed it didn’t follow federal law when it approved the project in 2003, under its original record-of-decision. The bridges project — consisting of an east-end bridge between Utica and east Louisville, a downtown bridge and a reconstruction of Spaghetti Junction — is undergoing a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement before federal approval for the project can be granted.



RIVER FIELDS’ RESPONSE

River Fields Board of Trustees President Lee T. Cory said she was not surprised by the states’ respective transportation agencies joining the suit, but questioned the timing of their motions. She said the litigation is on hold until the environmental impact statement is completed. She also questioned why the transportation agencies would wait so long to join the suit, as they have been parties to throughout the litigation and said by joining now they are beginning to use taxpayer money to pay for a legal fight.

In addition to the two transportation entities that are seeking to join the suit, Kentuckians For Progress filed a motion to intervene as a defendant in May.

Kentuckians for Progress supports the construction of the bridges project and its members include former Jefferson County Judge-Executive Rebecca Jackson, former Bridges Coalition Chairman David Nicklies, Allan Parnell, owner of Jeffersonville-based shipping company Mr. “P” Express Inc., the United Auto Workers Union 862 and Indiana-Kentucky Regional Council of Carpenters Local 64.

Kentuckians For Progress has called the lawsuit filed by River Fields part of the group’s obstructionist behavior and has launched a marketing campaign urging people to tell them to drop the lawsuit. During the public comment hearings in late June, Jackson said the lawsuit would have a detrimental effect on the cost of the project.

“This one lawsuit could increase [cost] by 10 percent,” Jackson said of the estimated $2.9 billion project. “That significantly increases the toll rates and the cost of this project.”

Cory disputed the claim and said it was “absolutely not true” and no statement in fact was included in the filings by the transportation agencies that the lawsuit would cost the project more money.

“If they had the money they could have been proceeding with this [project] the entire time,” Cory said.

She said River Fields is not trying to stop the bridges project, only that an east-end bridge isn’t required and the needs are better met by completing the downtown portions of the project. She added the group is exercising its right to ensure the government follows the law through the suit.



BRIDGES AUTHORITY

The group designated to come up with a funding plan for the bridges project, the Louisville and Southern Indiana Bridges Authority, is facing its own issues.

Questions of a potential conflict-of-interest involving the group’s Chairman Charles Buddeke, first reported in the Courier-Journal, surfaced because of his ties to the Buddeke Co. Buddeke is president of Buddeke Industries Inc., a chemical-grade limestone business based in Tennessee and was held on retainer as an adviser for the Buddeke Co.

The questions arose because one of bridges project’s potential contractors, Texas-based Fluor Corp., was in negotiations to use the land of a Buddeke Co. subsidiary, River Road Terminal.

According to the company’s website, River Road Terminal is 75 acres on River Road, near Zorn Avenue, that serves as an industrial-commercial port to operate a barge, rail and truck terminals and also includes storage facilities.

The interest in the site for potential contractors was not a surprise to Buddeke.

“I knew it was one of the ports they would look at,” he said.

He added that along with the Port of Indiana — Jeffersonville and Louisville’s Riverport, there are only three docks that a contractor could use to supply materials for the bridges project.

But he said he sold his interests in the Buddeke Co. in 1983. Paul, Charles Buddeke’s brother, became the full owner of the Buddeke Co. and its subsidiaries in 2003, and since his brother took over the operations, Charles Buddeke worked as an adviser on retainer.

In conflict of interest statements, Buddeke cited he worked as an adviser on nonbridges related business.

John Steffen, executive director of the Executive Branch Ethics Commission, agreed and issued a finding that Buddeke did not have a conflict of interest that would keep him from serving on the bridges authority.

The appointments to the authority in Indiana do not report to an ethics commission, but instead are self-policing; all appointees are expected to comply with the spirit of all of the state’s ethics laws and they are offered online instruction, said Christi Lanier-Robinson, director of communications for the bistate authority.

“Conflicts do come up, and it’s not about being able to avoid them, but how you manage them through disclosures,” she said.

But the issue with Buddeke may not come to a head until the project enters the procurement stage.

“We’re every bit of six months away before we start procurement,” Buddeke said. “We certainly don’t want something like this to slow us down.”

When asked if a perceived conflict of interest still exists at that time what he will do Buddeke said, “You recuse yourself from the process.”