Two stories recent stories in the BDN highlight both Maine’s shortcomings and an economic strategy for growth. One story reported that the feasibility of the long-touted east-west highway concept will be studied on the state’s dime — actually, on the state’s $300,000. The second story reported on the scope of Searsport’s Mack Point, where much of central and eastern Maine’s heating oil, diesel and gasoline are imported.
Looking at a map of the U.S., Maine appears to be an afterthought. Our location, so close to the highly populated Northeast yet also a dead-end on the interstate highway system, dooms Maine in many ways. Businesses needing to import material or products find it more costly and slower to get them delivered to Maine than to Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta or Cleveland. Shipping completed products to larger markets also is costly and slow.
But another look at the map and the two news stories suggests a logical strategy.
Maine will never be a shipping hub in the way Newark, N.J., or Seattle are. But the state is poised to become a link in a developing commerce conduit. Maine, and especially the central, eastern and western parts of the state, lies along an “as-the-crow-flies” corridor between the maritime ports of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and St. John, New Brunswick, and the distribution hub of Montreal.
Montreal is on the St. Lawrence River, with access to the St. Lawrence Seaway, which in turn links to Detroit and Chicago, which give shippers access to the midwestern U.S.
Building a road across Maine linking highways in New Brunswick to highways in Quebec would substantially enhance shipping through the two-nation region, which has been dubbed Atlantica. If part of that road can be built with private money and it operates as a limited-access toll road it is more likely to come to fruition than if plans hinge on public funding. Public money should be used to improve existing east-west roads to create the highway.
The Port of Searsport also plays a key role in this network. Part of the state Department of Transportation’s three-port maritime shipping strategy, the Mack Point facility and an area designated on adjacent Sears Island for a container port, provide unparalleled benefits to shippers.
The Mack Point facility has a rail connection that offers “double-stack” capacity, meaning one shipping container can be stacked on top of another and travel all the way to Montreal without encountering a low bridge. The port has 40-foot-deep waters, rare on the coast, and is a full day closer by ship to Europe than New York.
A very legitimate question arises when considering this improved transportation network: what’s in it for Maine? Skeptics are right to wonder whether the state will merely see tail lights and diesel exhaust if it becomes part of a shipping conduit.
The answer lies in realms outside government. Businesses are already using the transportation corridor, or parts of it. Trucks from ports in the Canadian Maritime provinces either cross Maine on secondary roads or use the Trans-Canada Highway to bypass the state. Or goods stay on ships and make the journey around Maine and New Brunswick and enter the St. Lawrence Seaway at the mouth of the river.
Economic growth in Maine and elsewhere has taken root near transportation infrastructure. First it was shipping ports and then it was interstate highways. If a new trans-modal transportation system rises through eastern, central and western Maine, economic activity will follow. If policymakers resist this system, business activity will create its own detour around Maine.
There are far too many folks in Maine who resist any and all development. The liberal environmentalists are hell bent to stop any progress here in Maine. The environmentalists and their propensity for regulation will strangle any larger scale projects here in Maine other than wind.
The “liberal” “environmentalists.”
Does applying Fox “News”-generated dismissive labels to anyone who might care about our delicate planet Earth relieve any doubt you might have about yourself arising from not having done your own research? Do you feel enlightened because you listen to Rush? Do you care so little for the generations of Mainers to come after us that you position yourself so against any effort to develop sustainable energy technologies? Admittedly, we’re not quite there yet — but why do you hate people who still want to try?
Most of the Mainer’s comming after us are finishing college and running as far as they can from Maine theres no work here and taxes/wages here suck.I’m all for tidal/wind energy/Solar although solar is not so good here.That is great but I want manufacturing and construction I’m sure those who don’t are the same ones who would rather see many of us die of or leave, but the way I see it my family has been here forever. Why should I have to leave so Quimby and her ilk can have their anti human utopia.Although I can understand her sentiment if I had to look at that mug in the mirror I would hate man kind also.
Germany gets 30% of it’s power from the sun and believe me Germany is no place to get a suntan. I lived in Frankfurt from November to March once many years ago and I think I saw the sun three times. Maine gets a LOT more sun than Germany so that encourages me that we can do it here.
This is a total lie. Funny twiggy isn’t chiming in now. Try 3%.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_Germany
Germany actually got themselves in trouble with there green energy program. They now have to purchase 30% of there energy from Austria and it is all coming from coal.
That’s encouraging, I read that certain solar panels are better then others for our area but would not net the same power as some of the south western states whitch makes sense.
Delete all after “development,” and you will be on the way to wisdom. ” We must disenthrall ourselves and then we shall save our country.”- A. Lincoln.
“Commerce” and “development” do not necessarily mean cars and trucks. I would enthusiastically back an intermodal rail system and passenger train service across Maine. But building more highways encourages more people to drive and discourages development of smarter, more efficient, and more forward-looking alternatives. The continuing emphasis on cars and trucks to the virtual exclusion of all else is the road to ruin.
Hank that is what the Umaine said in their study
More Liberal & Enviromentalists nonsense what do you expect from the Liberal Taxpayer funded University. The same university that wants us to spend tens of millions of taxpayers dollars on stupid Ethanol research, spending same amount of money on Wind Turbine development, off shore turbines research etc.. Just more Liberal BS. Liberals & Enviros can’t tolerate that their park proposal has fallen off the tracks while this proposed East-West Highway is just 1 to 2 steps away from seeing construction crews building. The Liberals and Enviros are having heartburn that the fact that jobs are being created with different businesses announcing jobs being added. With a ton more on the way if the East-West Highway is built. As I stated to you and a few others the Liberals & Enviros last few nights in different articles that they can’t do nothing about it . Because of the laws passed decades ago in Augusta giving Maine Dot and any Governor the power to declare an Emergency Economic need for this road to help spur job growth. The Liberals are powerless they can’t do a people’s veto because the Liberal State Supreme Court has declared this law constitutional in a ruling many years ago when they tried to stop the DOT from building roads and bridges that were needed. So you can cite every study you want even from Canada for that matter. It means ZERO because the law is in place so when DOT and LePage says start raising money and start building because of the emergency need for this road that is the final decision.
Laws can and do get rolled back. I hope this one will be too so we can start over including all Mainers on what privatization of highways means and what it actually involves.
Also this road will almost certainly require the full 50% public funding provided for in the statute. $1billion in “public share” is a lot of money here in Maine.
The brainwashing going on with the left has been leading this state to financial ruin, high unemployment, and lazy people on the couch collecting welfare and foodstamps.
The same people who complain about industry moving to China would fight tooth and nail to keep them from opening a profitable business here.
The global warming lie is the biggest success story of liberal politics the world has ever seen.
Think of it this way people are already driving the zig zaggy course from west to east and vise versa and it burns alot more fuel then a east west highway would not to mention the wear and tear them roads create on your rig what ever rig you drive.That highway would save time and cut fuel and cut maintanance costs.I do agree with you on improving the rail systems we need them.
My point was that building more roads encourages more driving and discourages the development of more efficient alternatives. Thank you for addressing my comment, though, unlike Mapleton Man, whose so-called reply has nothing to do with my original comment.
Let’s just go back to horses and buggies the Liberals want us to go back to the stone ages. The same folks that claim LePage is doing nothing are the same crowd that didn’t do a darn thing the time they were in power. They claim to be for infrastructure and put borrowing packages on the ballot each year only to have that money end up expanding Welfare Programs. The Democrats should just keep the mouths shut because they aren’t for anything except Welfare and the Environmnentalists nonsense that has driven our state to being the worst state economically. Now that things are finally moving foward with the East-West Highway they don’t want it. Well too bad because the majority of Mainers especially those North of Augusta want it. We spoke loud and clear in 2010 we wanted change and voted to end the failed status quo. The Democrats in Augusta are just tone deaf , blind and out of touch with the average working Mainer. It is time to get this road built and start building it now it has been studied to death since the early 1950’s time to put folks to work.
I know a lot of liberals, and none of them “want us to go back to the stone ages.” This is a straw man argument that adds nothing to a reasonable discussion.
The most lucid post here is the one questioning whether massive highway projects are yesterday’s answers to tomorrow’s needs. In my opinion, continuing to expand the car and truck culture without considering smarter and more efficient alternatives is short-sighted. You’re welcome to disagree, but if your only response is to slam fantasy “liberals” who supposedly want us to live in caves, I can’t take you very seriously.
So it is a political party which is the problem? Who votes these clowns in? What responsibility do the “majority” bare for this failure of ideas?
Yeah my neighbors dog had pups. Oops must be a liberal democrat communist socialist that caused it.
I confess I’m a liberal and I also am all for the building of an east-west highway. I would route it a little differently and I would also like it to be built with Federal and State money. If tolls are needed to pay for it, so be it.
“Yeah my neighbors dog had pups”
Isn’t that what liberal democrat communist socialists do best ?
If my dog had kittens I’d be looking for Rush and his cohorts. They would all need to be detoxed from Oxy’s.:)
Ok I agree (except the liberal part) The problem is that the State and Federal governments can ill afford to get the job done. They don’t have the money and or the political will to do it. They had over 40 years and good economic times to do it. That tells me the government can’t get the job done alone. Instead of building our economic infrastructure we have built an infrastructure to create services for the poor. We have fooled ourselves into thinking that a service economy dependent on the government is somehow economic growth.
As for the tolls… I think its better for the state to collect a portion of them as part of some agreement with a private group and then tax them on the profits as well.
The big difference today is that the tax rates have dropped so much and loopholes have grown at the same time. It’s no wonder we as a nation can’t build and maintain our highway system to what it should be.
Besides the GI Bill that gave millions of returning military personel from WWII and Korea the opportunity to get an education, the Interstate Highway system is responsible for the greatest leap in national wealth and prosperity this country has ever had. It opened up areas that were considered back waters to industry and expansion unheard of before.
Living in an area that is virtually dieing on the vine for want of good infrastructure. I would love to see this highway put through. In all likelyhood, I’ll be dead and gone before this road is done so I won’t gain anything from it. Maybe my children or grandchildren would.
patom1 please see the tax discussion i am having with fwteagles in the tax article thread.
except that is not how it works under privatization under the bill Cianbro and Contractor associations wrote for themselves. The contrcator literally “owns” the road for the term of the agreement, 50 years in our case and they earn their profits and retire debt via the tolls. They get all the tolls and they raise them without notice whenever needed to keep their guaranteed profit level.
That’s the deal for this road.
But every state is turning to private sector for help because they know they can get the job done and infact build better roads then what you see now with DOT. All the DOT does is give it a skim coat and call it good and then a few years later you are back to where it was before. We need 1st class highways here in Maine, more Interstates/Turnpikes. What we have is roads and bridges that are pathetic. What we need is more roads like I-95 and Maine Turnpike quality . With less roads and bridges that are like the Veteran’s Bridge in Portland, Kittery Bridge that is closed, Norridgewock bridge until last year , and that bridge that was falling apart for 50 years, that now is rebuilt and has a viewing deck. We don’t want that type of quality but Democrats refused to fix the problem.
iners
DarkCat,
Yes 29 States as of 2008 considered privatization and some have enacted statutes. Some did so long ago like Virginia. The Chicago Skyway another more recent example. We should watch and learn from what has happened there.
Nothing wrong with Maine looking to PPP’s too since, as you correctly point out, we like other states are just not able to find the pubic funds to mainatin our infrastructure let alone expand it. We are almost forced to look to private markets for the capital we need to maintain and upgrade our infrastructure.
I think it is a very significant decision, nonetheless, and one all the public needs to understand and support.
We were denied that opportunity.
We are still being denied that opportunity.
All Mainers had a right to be in on understandinng what it means, how it works, why its being considered and it so consequential to the public interests, it really should have been decided by referendum.by popular vote or at least with lots of public hearings.
I think it was wrong to allow Cianbro and other contractor interests to write this law even though DOT was a co-writer and to have the public completely excluded.
I and I hope all Mainers are deeply offended that this was crafted specifically with the East West Highway in mind as is very clear from the “insider” statements which are the only input on this bill.
As any of us can check for ourselves by googling “public private partnerships for highways” the wisdom says these programs are only as good as the statutes that create them and that the big bugaboo is protecting the public interest. We weren’t at the table. We didn’t even know it was going and comparing our statute to “best practices standards” you can see we fall short on the “public interest” side.
A key issue is costs to users which are typically 2-4 times higher under PPP’s because private entities have to pay more to access credit markets and they are guranteed a profit. The most cost effective pricing is gate to gate as we have for the Maine Turnpuke ow but insteda of $1.50 gate the Esat West Highway could cost $30-$50 per gate. Shirt mileage users are usually the most aggrieved under ppp’s.
I think this law should be repealed and that we should start over with a pricess of connsidering privatization of our highways that includes “we the people”
Oh please. The Federal government has plenty of money. People who say that the US is running out of money haven’t a clue how this economy works. The cost of a road through Maine is inconsequential when placed against most government programs, AND You don’t need to pay the cost of a public-financed road up front. You float a bond, and pay it off with tolls.
BUT
That is precisely the deal that the last two studies rejected as not being a net positive for MAINE citizens.
” They don’t have the money and or the political will to do it. They had
over 40 years and good economic times to do it. That tells me the
government can’t get the job done alone.”
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
It isn’t going to be built with Federal and State money because their is none to give because of the horrible economy. That is why Private Investors will be the ones paying to build this road, that is why they are studying about how much it will cost and where the route may end up it could change. It could have connecting roads connecting it to different areas of Maine farther south. But I see the road being built soon they may as I stated in past posts use the emergency economic clause for infrastructure to help the economy. That the gives the DOT and The Governor special powers by Maine law and just call for construction crews to start building the road to help our economy.
Based on the last studies commissioned at considerable taxpayer expense and done by experts, this 4 lane highway will not be bankable even as a public private partnership without the full 50% public contribution allowed by the law Cianbro & other contractors wrote for themselves and arranged to have passed without public comment or even public knowledge.
That’s $1 billion in Maines highway bonding.
Also private investors don’t like highways based on projected traffic. This is based almost entirely on an assumed 100% diversion of Canada to Canada traffic now driving up around.
That alone in real financial markets will require a significant amount of public financing and public concessions because it significantly increases investor risk.
The way this road should be decided is by referendum with its own separate statute laying out as the turnpike authroity legislation did the route, the exits, the protections and guarantees to the public and the general terms of any privatization. Then the public has a chance to review the route, the exits, the basic configuration and a basic understanidinng on commercial vs private passenger rate structures. From there you do feasibility studies and work out the terms of the public private partnership that can deliver the desired road.
This should have been done before the $300,000 in public money was authorized. That must obviously be based on a route and acquistion costs and exit locations, franchises etc. that the public has had no opportunity to review.
Generalise Much?
Perhaps if there were some real gain for Maine people, they wouldn’t be so opposed to various projects. The reality of this modern age is that projects like these are designed to feed more money to the rich.
With most of the wealth of this country tied up in the hands of the super rich, the rest of us have lost any desire to promote economic incentive legislation, because it never seems to benefit anyone but the rich.
This is part of how the downfall begins. The poeple no longer have faith that the economic system they live in will allow them to prosper.. it only allows them to get by. The 1% have hoarded so much cash that it is now not possible for the avg American to earn a decent wage.
When the 1% start to understand that we all lose when they hoard all the cash, we might see some change…. but.. the greedy did not accumulate all that wealth by spending it… they got it by being greedy… Trickle down is the 2nd biggest lie of the last 30 years… WMD takes the #1 spot for me…..
Better to be a “liberal environmentalist” than a greedy selfish corporatist right winger who would like to turn the world into one big parking lot, and who LIES about global warming to further exploit and destroy the environment for profit only, and who goes to bed at night with other greedy corporatists like the oil corporations giving them our tax money and sitting up late drinking oil milkshakes with them, and would crawl through a hurricane to give another job killing tax cut to a billionaire the middle class be damned. The right wingers want to go back to unregulated smoke stacks,the days of the Robber Barrons, child labor, and no workers’ rights so workers can be treated like virtual slaves. And these “liberal environmentalists” are the ones who cleaned up Maine’s filthy rivers and protect our forests and natural open spaces for hunting, fishing, boating, tourism, etc. ALL of which is integral to our economy. Our environment is our brand. We are proud of that national leadership and the leadership on clean and renewable energy development, as you right wingers wallow in the dark ages. And this is not to say we can’t have an east/west highway. I think it would be a good idea. You had better get all your facts straight before you start throwing stones while you parrot the sludge you get from FAKE News and Rush Limpmind.
” Public money should be used to improve existing east-west roads to create the highway.”
The truth is starting to unfold as they change their story about it being a “Private Highway”.
Current law requires 50% of the price tag to be paid for by the State.
If this Passes the Feasability study we need to petition the State to Fund 100% and ditch the crony private investors, as they are only there to skim a profit from the deal!
you know I am with you dlbrt but it doesn’t “require”, it allows, up to 50% public nvestment..and it will need a huge a chunk to make this look feasible..unless of course they hire David Cole to do the study….
I just received the entire history on this bill from the clerks office at the legislature..it was written by …guess who???? Cianbro, DOT, Maria Fuentes, Maine General Contractors and John Melrose of Maine Tomorrow. Only a very small group of insiders testified in support of the bill which bypassed public hearings. There was no debate or discussion on the floor.
If you really want to see a horror story take the map of the proposed route and start looking at the current, and recent changes in, the land deed’s that the road is going to affect. This is a repeat of the railroad’s back in the 1880’s and who owned the land the railroad’s needed to run their rail’s. Same story, different time but the same motive’s.
Michael,
I believe it was Governor King in his speaking on the East West Higway, after reading all the consultants reports , who urged that Maine start acquiring land either side of routes 2 and 9 wherever possible. He was not in support of the East West toll road ( his actual text is available at the DOT site on the East West Highway page) but he recognised that routes 2 and 9 would need significant improvements and signifcant widening to continue in useful service as a State Highway.
Is that what you are seeing? What kinds of acquistions and changes are you seeing? How do the towns and settlements along the route of 2 and 9 interpret and feel about that?
You are right about the 50% , it is written to be less than 50% State Capital. A reasonable person could conclude however that the initial proposal by Vigue would be as close to that number as possible to get the full effect of the legislation that HE wrote.
Writing laws to suit your personal buisness needs, sounds alot like ALEC. Everyone is getting into the legislation buisness but the politicians.
It seems to me that all the politicians are there these days are for the pay, pension, occasional houre duerves and then a vote.
Yes, I think you are right, Dlbrt that the full 50% of public funding will be essential to make this project vaguely feasible from a “bankable” point of view.
The question then arises is this the best place to use $1billion in public debt? Are there highway infrastucture improvements where we could get more certain public benefit from public private partnerships for a $1 billion public bond? I think the answer to that is clearly yes, For example improving port access at Searsport and Eastport or even privatizing the entire Maine turnpike and using the proceeds of that to fund some needed highway infrastructure improvements in many communities in Maine. Even if the private enterprise is responsible for repayment, $1 billion is still a huge public debt and very different from what Vigue has publicly portrayed.
To me it is just absurd that we are letting contractors set our priorities for infrastructure improvements. It’s ludicrous.
I couldn’t agree with you more about the disheartening sell out by our legislature to corporate interests. This goes back to the Baldacci years and before there ws a republican majority so we can’t blame LePage entirely or the current Republocan majority. This runs deeper. Maine has been a “kleptocracy” a “corporatocracy” for a long time, it seems.
All you have to do apparently is promise jobs and prosperity ( with no rational proof of that) and they will vote for anything.
Wrong because this road isn’t being built by the public. That is why the passed the study to see how much its going to cost private folks (Multi-Billionaires) to pay for it. Some say it could cost as little as $2 Billion and take a few years to build , but it could cost more if they change the route and add connector roads in Central, Coastal and Western Maine to help those areas out.
The people that yell loudest about government not being able to ever do anything right, are the same people right there ready to profiteer off the state and the taxpayer.
No, I don’t think the government can do anything right, and I fail to see how putting this incompetent bunch of nincompoops in bed with greedy businessmen will lead to anything good for the citizenry.
I hope that part of the $300,00 East-West feasability money pays for studying how Mainers will get across this private Canadian Highway toll road if we plan to travel South-North
The same way we cross the I-95 when traveling East-West, perhaps?
overpass: noun a road, pedestrian walkway, railroad, bridge, etc., crossing over some barrier, as another road or walkway.
underpass: noun
a passage running underneath, especially a passage for pedestrians or vehicles, or both, crossing under a railroad, road, etc.
That sounds feasable. They should build one or the other for every crossing.
Nonsense..you head a great company that I refer to frequently ( I like ESOPS)..but you are not an economist or a transportation planner or any of the other things that qualify you to make these judgments about Maine’s opportunities… and it calls your character into question for me..as what you are about is not at all about any of these things. And that’s disappointing because I like to cheer for Maine guys who work their way up the ladder. You have given a fine old company a black mark in your antics in this.
Totally agree with you, Lindsay. I cannot say anything more without a long dissertation you summarized in a few satisfying words. Maine has long been in the same “status” as it is currently, only now more dramatically because of the “political times” and the “world economic structure” as it happens to be. On another point, will the E/W Highway be repaid to the State of Maine by way of tolls, especially for heavy carriers plying this highway and tourists bypassing all the important and rustic places along the way of coastal routes vying and praying for some tourist season business? Everything sounds good on paper, but this seems it will become a Red Herring eventually for commercial Maine.
Under privatization, the tolls go to the private operator..they pay an up front bid representing the value of the public roadways they are taking over, in Maine for up to 50 years. It is actually the most expensive way to build a highway as it costs private parties more for capital than it does public parties and private parties also have to make a profit which is guaranteed in the agreement with the private operator. The folk who pay that higher cost are users of the roadway..tolls are 2-4 times higher on privatized highways and short distance users are almost always squeezed out as charges are gate to gate.
In Maine, our highway privatization law was written by Cianbro, DOT, the Maine Contractors Association, Maine Tomorrow ( John Melrose) and the Maine Trasportation Association and passed without benefit of public review or comment. The Law allows sole source unsolicited contracts and shields the proposal itself design of the highwya, location of route, #of exits etc) from public scrutiny until approved by DOT. The law as written also lacks the necessary accountability and standards to protect the public interest.
Not entirely true. I had one discussion with a local ex-state Senator that seemed privy to proposed exits. Just out of curiosity how do you define “public interest”. Mine might differ from yours.
Your friend may be one of those who have access to the Cianbro east-westme.com website.
Under the statute Cianbro & Contractors wrote for themselves all details are secret until the entire proposal ( including the demonstrated feasibility) are approved by the DOT.And even then there is no mandate for public hearings..only notice to and approval by the legislature.
Privatization takes roadway construction out of the realm of accountability to the public and to the public interest.
If Mr. Vigue is as committed to Maine and Maine citizens as he says he is..we shouldn’t be guessing or relying on what we heard here or there. It should be open and he should be showing all of us “his plan”. It should be open and forthright..there should be some commitments to the public.eg preservation of a toll free east local rd.
I was using “public interest” in the broadest possible sense of fairness and equity for communities and businesses whose property may be taken or adversely affected, preservation of local roads for local users, preservation of access to the national park along the route and to the many small businesses based on wilderness hunting and fishing, fair wages, non monopolization..giving smaller contractors access to some of the work, protection of areas the state has deemed as sensitive and vulnerable, fair rates and service for autos and local maine users. None of these commitments have been made by Vigue. None are in the statute Cianbro wrote for themselves and got passed without any of us knowing anything about it.
Do you disagree that the process should be more open and that the public has a right to know and have input to the aspects of this tollway that will most affect Maine and Maine communities?.
No he referenced a personal discussion with Peter. The State Senator in question is a liberal Democrat.
Name him I wish to write him a letter!
I’m a big fan of letting Cianbro build this this quasi-public-private road. I am not willing to let them do it with taxpayer money, however. Perhaps Vigue could hold back on his gifts to the Republican party for an election or two and bank roll the whole project in one fell swoop.
Is Cianbro headquartered in Waterville?
Pittsfield.
Now that’s requiring Vigue and hs bunch to litteraly ‘put their money where their mouth is’ ! Best idea I’ve seen yet. And practical to boot !
Bangorian, the privatization legislation, authored by Cianbro, other contractor interests and DOT (and enacted without public input or awareness in 2010), allows up to 50% public money.
That would most likely be via Federal bond subordinate to or actually assigned to the private operator. That would be for this project putting the full faith and credit of Maine up to the tune of $1 billion behind this project. That would have the effect of lowering overall costs as the higher costs of privatization are mainly attributable to the higher costs of private capital.
Based on the financial data in the earlier consultant studies I would say it is almost certain this project would requre the maximum public contribution of a $1 billion bond to be even vaguely feasible for a private investment point of view. It would also require maximum utilization of the existing right of way for route 2 and 9 which is problematic for the communities and businesses along this route. It seems very unlikely it would be viable at all as a completelt de novo road more or less parallel to the existing roads. That’s a key issue in this whole project.
The investors for projects like this are highly specialized and primarily base their credit extensions and investments on actual traffic not projected traffic. This project is based on an assumption of 100% diversion of Canadian truck traffic now driving up around Maine. Among highway investors, this kind of assumption is not highly regarded.
Yes, let’s do it. BDN showed an article showing that Maine has recently had the slowest income growth rate in the country, we are in desperate need of economic activity to fire up the engine.
Yes we are in desperate need of some real world creative community involved thinking about how to reverse the long term trends in Maine…while the south prospers, the upper rural 2/3 withers and is ignored.
But let’s not fall for false promises put out to “buy” us into submission. Let’s not jump and say oh yes please every time some one like Vigue or JD Irving comes along and says that what is going to line their pockets is good for us. Let’s not jump at every promise that a profit driven project mentions “jobs”.
The jobs you can count on are bigger and better served, better supported versions of the jobs that have been in your community always. Those jobs that grow out of multi generational know how and expertise are the ones that will connect Maine to global and broader national markets.
Let’s decide for ourselves in our communities what kind of jobs and economic growth make sense for us. Let’s figure out how to add value in our own communities so we are the one’s taking profits. Let’s figure out what infrastructure and support we need to grow those jobs and hold the state accountable to our vision..not to Vigue’s vision of a big 50 year piggy bank for his company.
Study a train route. Cheaper to build, more economical to move freight, and less expensive to maintain. If Diesel goes to $10 (and that’s not impossible) taxpayers will be dunned again for a different system of moving goods. How about we think ahead this time?
Michael, Lindsey, and Dlbrt;
Get a room !
Whats the Best thing about the Trans Canada Highway?
It’s in Canada!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:TransCanadaHWY.png
A question we have to consider is whether massive highway projects are yesterday’s answers for tomorrows needs. The countries we consider our competitors in such matters are building modern, efficient rail systems, a field through which we continue to drag our feet. Peter Vigue’s vision and that of the crowd he’s circulated through during his career could just as well be realized through a well-designed, well-financed rail project, perhaps using the route Canadians have used for decades.
So wise and so many wise economists and transportation planners agree with you including the University of Maine. In this age when we think major new capital infratucture invetsments thinking toll roads is not wise.We should be thinking hi speed and hi tech rail..
If it comes to the state having to put up a $1 billion bond..is this what you would want it to go for even under a privatization scheme???? And is this where tyou would put that facilitating Canada’s truckl connection with itself or stratgeically are there wiser choices for Maine that would produce more befit for Minae.
Does it make sense to you to have contrcators do trabsportation planning for the State, for us?
Doesn’t it make more sense to you for “we the people” to identify and prioritize the corridors that would most expand and build on our existing economic centers and know how and then solicit proposoals for those projects?
Shouldn’t we get the biggest possible bang for Maine if we are putting up $1 billion in public debt?
They should be looking at the old CN rail ROW that cuts thru Megantic to Brownville to Vanceboro.. ROW all there and owned by one or two companies. Old Bangor and Aroostook corridors all there and waiting to Mack Point, or Aroostook, connects in Brownville Jct. Cut new ROW south of Greenville to stay away from the lake and swing back west somehow West bound on one side of the track, east on the other,and upgrade the tracks. Hot freight goes by truck, bulk or cold freight goes by container train.
There was another BAR railgrade that ran from Old Town to Milo to Greenville that they stopped using in the 30s. They laid out the flatest route west and north in the 1860s without the use of GIS. The gradeworks are mostly still there, so that’s a pretty good feasibility study to figure out a route.
There will be 50 yrs of lawsuits if you try to run a new ROW thru the populated /farming area l
of Piscataquis/Penobscot county. Keep it up in the woods away from everybody if its going to be primarily a road train haulroad for the Canadians.
Cianbro wants to build a haulroad for them, let them do it on their dime.
But the socalled I92 needs to be built thru ME,NH,VT and NY for the rest of us.
There are 21 previous studies from the 30’s until now. Seems like one of those would be good enough.
“But the socalled I-92 needs to be built thru ME,NH,VT and NY for the rest of us”. This highway will work it could be made even better if they add connector routes to it to benefit other parts of Maine. But to make it look like its a bad idea is foolish because this road is needed.
Thats what it was called on a lot of the old studies when they were laying out 95,89 and 93. East/West was referred to as I92.
I dont think its a bad idea to build it, we need it, with connector routes. I just dont see it as a good idea for Cianbro to have a private haul road for Canadian shipping interests that we help pay for. If they want to pay for it, fine. I just think the state is better served with the I92 idea parallel to Rt 2 and 9, with connectors off it north and south
I refer to the railroad ROW, esp the old CN one, because I dont want to see a new 200 ft ROW cut thru across the state as a private road. Use whats there already. One has to ask though, if its so vital to link Halifax and St John on the shortest route , why did the Canadian gov spend a billion dollars to go around us with a railroad and the Transcanada?
Build the I92 from Calais to NY state, let the Canadians worry about their own transport needs.
I have NO TROUBLE getting to I-91 in Vermont taking Rt. 2
New York has an East West highway (actually several of them.)
Maine has something other States lack… and you want to sell that for money. Try living in Charlottesville VA for awhile, then come back here and tell us you want yet another road.
BTW we have an East West highway for US citizens… It is called I-95.
Agreed. Look at our history and a map…roads basically go from southwest to the northeast. And now all at once we are to build a road which goes east to west through the center of our state. Tell me why.
Why destroy Maine just for gas tanks and a strip of asphalt? The Searsport gas terminal offers twelve jobs and a threat to a beautiful coastal region and a predominant tourist area. The cobwebbed highway plan is strictly to serve commuting Canadians. That too, threatens to disrupt the lives of thousands of rural residents. Lots of construction jobs. After that – nothing.
Maine, despite its detractors, has so much more to develop. Its intrinsic values are priceless, and have yet to be fully explored.
Businesses and projects such as these, will help destroy one of Maine’s biggest businesses and much of its beauty.
”
The answer lies in realms outside government.”
Something one would never expect to hear from the Bolsheviks on the BDN editorial board. They obviously have been taken over by pod people.
….
Can you spell “Boon Doggle”?
Maine is on the way to Hell.
This east-west highway comes up a lot over the years and is being promoted by some entity, probably Irving and the Canadians. There is no benefit to us and the environmental damage would be massive.
Pardon me while I barf.
You folks at the BDN have never seen a State expenditure of which you didn’t fully approve. Editors have long touted tax hikes, and every foolish new-age program dreamed up in Augusta by legislators usually too drunk to drive. You were in favor of the last two studied (which were funded by generous Maine taxpayers) You must remember the two studies which told us that this same route was a net loser for for regular citizens. Now you think it is a good idea to give a private company $300,000 to study a private for profit highway which most Mainers will never use.
I have a suggestion: Let the BDN finance this study. Oh yeah, that’s right, you don’t have any money because you are loosing readership, mostly due to the fact you have no reasonable ideas to convey.
Why don’t you move to California. There are PLENTY of highways there… and they are still broke.
Coincidentally and hopefully helpful to those who may not have tuned in yet to the fact that Maine enacted highway privatization statutes two years with no public knowledge or input, Ezra Klein, Washington Post has a nice global overview piece today:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/more-states-privatizing-their-infrastructure-are-they-making-a-mistake/2012/03/31/gIQARtAhnS_blog.html
It’s fair and balanced and considers the entire history in Europe, Asia and here in the U.S. I agree with his bottom line which is basically, we are forced to look at ways of involving private capital in maintaining, improving and upgrading our transportation infrastructure but it’s tricky going, requires a huge amount of technical and financial sophistication on the part of the State and is full of expensive surprises for the public users and for the governmnet entity overseeing the contract.