AUGUSTA, Maine — It has been reported over and over that the exact route of a proposed east-west highway would be part of a $300,000 state feasibility study, but that is just not true, Nina Fisher, a Maine Department of Transportation spokeswoman, said Monday.
“It is not determining a route,” she said of the study. “Cianbro has proposed a route, but that’s not our role in the process. [The feasibility study] will simply determine if the numbers are there — if it will be a feasible investment.”
Gov. Paul LePage signed a bill in early April authorizing $300,000 for an east-west highway feasibility study, which would connect Calais to Coburn Gore. Several news stories, including reports published in the Bangor Daily News that quoted MDOT officials, have said the study would include the final route. Fisher said that information was incorrect and she apologized for the errors.
She also said no work has been done on the feasibility study because the first request for proposals netted only one submission.
“We only received one proposal back, but it was a complete misrepresentation of the scope of what we were looking for,” she said. “We’re revising the scope and we hope to send it back out for proposals in the coming months.”
Since the first request for proposals was unsuccessful and the scope is being retooled, the extent of the feasibility study is still in flux, according to Fisher.
“This is not a design,” she stressed. “It’s not a traditional study like we did in the past and it’s not a geographic study — it’s a feasibility study.”
The Department of Transportation has “been tasked with conducting a traffic and revenue analysis for a proposed privately funded, privately operated and publicly accessible toll highway from Calais to Coburn Gore,” Fisher said. “We have an impartial analytical role and are conducting the study in an independent manner.”
The bill requires a report with the study findings to be presented to the Legislature’s Transportation Committee by Jan. 15, 2013, but with the delay in starting the study, Fisher said she expects MDOT leaders will ask for an extension.
The proposed 220-mile toll highway, expected to cost between $1.5 billion and $2 billion, would start in Calais, follow Stud Mill Road to Costigan, just north of Old Town, cross the Penobscot River, then head northwest to LaGrange, Milo, south of Dover-Foxcroft, Monson and The Forks before connecting to Route 27 and crossing the Canadian border into Quebec. The initial plan calls for six interchanges in Maine.
From the border, it is only about 60 miles to both the Trans Canada Highway Route 10 near Sherbrooke, Quebec — with connections to Buffalo, Detroit and other Midwest cities — and to Trans Canada Highway Route 73 and Beauceville, Quebec, located south of Quebec City.
Proponents, including Peter Vigue, chairman and CEO of Cianbro Corp., who has spent the last couple of years making presentations in Maine and Canada about building the highway, say the four-lane roadway would provide a conduit for trade and tourism between Maine, the Midwest and points in Canada.
Opponents have voiced concerns about the project. They fear it could harm the state’s natural resources, cause an increase in pollution and lead to utilities such as an oil pipeline being added to the project. Another drawback, they contend, is that the highway would be privately funded by secret deep-pocket investors.
State lawmakers have commissioned similar highway studies in the past. One authorized by the 102nd Maine Legislature recommended an east-west highway corridor then called the International Atlantic Corridor Road project.
The 118th Legislature passed a law in 1997 requiring the Maine DOT to conduct a study of the costs, benefits and social and environmental impacts of an east-west highway.
The idea for an east-west highway “was first broached in a 1937 economic development plan for the state prepared under the auspices of the federal Works Progress Administration,” according to “A Brief History of Rural Development Policy,” published by the New England Environmental Finance Center in 2007.
All prior east-west highway proposals have relied on state and Federal Highway Administration funding for construction, and all have stalled. Vigue has said that lack of available taxpayer dollars is one of the reasons he started talking to private investors interested in addressing the state’s transportation needs.
Fisher said people always are surprised when they hear the recently approved feasibility study will not include the exact route.
Only one company had an interest in the “study”……I’d want a lot more than $300,000.00 if I had to stand up in front of some of those same good folks that Peter Vigue faced.
Define “good”.
Regular people that recognize a scam possibly coming to their backyard. They also know that Vigue knows where the highway will be built. How can a feasability study be conducted if nobody knows where the road is going?-they know better and the next guy that shows up to explain it better have their &*$% togther in a big way.
“We have an impartial analytical role and are conducting the study in an independent manner.”
Impartial and independent both, eh? Why do I find that so hard to believe about Governor LePage’s DOT? How likely is it that the report will conclude that the traffic could not possibly justify the costs? Near zero.
The state–my tax dollar– is paying to determine if this road is ‘feasible’–why the hell doesn’t Cianbro do that? The profit will be theirs, so why not the upfront investment?
Why? Privatise Profits and Socialize Losses!
It’s the Republican Government Way!
{Vigue has said that lack of available taxpayer dollars is one of the reasons he started talking to private investors interested in addressing the state’s transportation needs.}
If you can convince the general public with anti government sentiment that Government is not the answer, Government is the Problem, and you can portray Taxes and the government as an evil socialist thing, you can defund the government with Anti tax pledges you can come in and replace it, because it is weak —-step into it and make yourself a pretty profit and if all goes bad, get the Tax payers to take your losses!
Yeah, exactly. Rig the game so you can’t lose and scream bloody murder when you get even a scratch on your finger.
Let’s see – all those folks who WORK for a living and would like answers if Cianbro and Vigue will steal their homes would like answers. How much will the Cianbro Canadian Turnpike net him personally?
I wonder how many of these “private investors” are Canadian. I would guess that it is a majority of them since they will see the largest benifit from this not Mainers who have to deal with only the negatives and not reap the benifit of the positives….
Great! Two billion dollars worth of investment pouring into Maine from away. Sounds like a good start to me.
Assuming that traffic and rights to the corridor will be controlled exclusively by “Private” interest, like Irving, with frequent and regular payoffs to Cianbro et al., it appears that something is missing in the equation. This corridor is entirely avoiding Route 9, a highway that was only recently re-constructed at a substantial cost to Maine taxpayers. Traffic, even during the summer months on Route 9 is consistently sparse. There’s a reason for this since control of the proposed route would revert to the State. Smart businessmen are plotting to use the Irving route because it will be ensure a handsome and regular source of revenue for oil products from western Canada and the ports of Montreal for years to come. Cianbro stands to make a fortune, yet Vigue reverts to arguments that Mainers will benefit from the project because a few interchanges allow them to get off and on the system at a small fee. This is a ruse! The State of Maine should look very closely at the revenue source that it controls before it gives the farm away to St John moguls and their salivating construction pawns.
Please, the feasibility of the highway is based on a lot of factor’s. The route itself, which includes the geographic issue’s of bridging and tunneling when necessary, requires factoring since the cost’s of the engineering and actual construction per mile is alone gonna be a huge issue. Add to that is the fuel usage rate per mile/km by the predominant user’s, namely the trucking industry (which I do not have a ‘beef’ with in any way) is another. And with the constant change in fuel price’s, and the differing standard’s of both measurement and exchange rate’s, this feasibility study is going to be a nightmare. And if Vigue’s people have any gut’s they are going to be telling the Cianbro Board of Director’s this, regardless of what ever Petey’s ‘vision’ is. The same can be asked of their own internal risk assessment. Someone in Cianbro needs to step up and start asking the Company those not-so-nice question’s, now, before this whole thing wind’s up imploding and the Company ‘tanking’ simply because someone didn’t have the gut’s to ask ‘that question’ before the implosion is too late to prevent. If anything, and I am surprised, Cianbro, as a ESOP-oriented Company, should be looking at this project of Vigue’s from a lot more perspective’s than just the money one. Lack of a ‘Devil’s Advocate’ perspective is being seen more and more as a lack of Corporate Due Dilligence when it comes time for these same Company’s Annual Stoclholder’s Meeting’s. ENRON and Adelphia are the most infamous of these example’s. It’s also, when the imploding begins, seen as a starting point for any number of SEC investigation’s. How many folk’s on Cianbro’s Board are gonna be in any hurry to drink that Kool-Aid ?
That the DOT has only received 1 proposal is no surprise either. Any responsible engineering firm that looks at this is going to practice some serious due dilligence and go back as far as they can in their research and see what’s been researched, studied and done, either in concept or in actual practice, prior before they decide to jump into a project of this scale. Since this road concept has been studied since the 30’s, as well as the Alcan Highway being used as a comparison since the conditions and terrain are similar, and found to be seriously ‘wanting’ in both economics and practicality in Maine, one has to step back and ask themselves just what and why this road is being pushed so heavily AND who stand’s to benefit from it the most. While Maine trucker’s would love the idea of a non-stop highway from Coburn to Calais, the DOT is going to ask the most immediate question up front, that being does Maine have enough truck traffic, in-State, to justify the economics of building, and maintaining it when Cianbro eventually walks away, and what’s the pay-off cycle ? If they want to add the Canadian ‘factor’ in fine. But the road’s ‘need’ needs to be based on Maine’s need’s and benefit’s, not what the Canadian’s want. They want the road so bad, they can build it, and fund it. Does anyone see Ottawa riding over the hill with their checkbook in hand ? Add the inevitable maintenance cost’s, and the inevitable State-required intervention when Cianbro has something happen ‘they can’t handle’ funding issue’s into this mess and the economics become both clear and, for those who have been thru this before, angering when the smoke clears. Some may want the road simply because Vigue is promising all sorts of job’s and other inducement’s. Folk’s you need to step back and start measuring just what actual benefit’s this road is going to provide versus what the actual cost’s are going to be. And remember, as so many of you know, road maintenance cost’s always go up, never down. Brownville is findng that out as we speak. And it ain’t pretty.
Ever think about working for BDN lol!!
No, not really. I value my self-respect and my independence more, though my wife has asked about me doing something. And as far as Mr Stewart is concerned, well, he’s entitled to his opinion and I am to mine. And if Gadel is correct about Stewart’s working for the MHPC, well, it’s been said that a man’s willingness to stand up for what he (or she !) believes determines their impact, and contribution, on society as a whole is based on the number of critic’s that he or she has. If this is so then it’s not a wonder why Vigue’s stretching the truth, and the public’s rapidly shrinking patience, is approaching the breaking point like Gumby on a Ferris Wheel. As Jefferson once said (and bear with me please) ‘Open discussions and agreement’s, openly negotiated and agreed to, always serve the public’s interest than private deal’s that benefit only a few’. Time for some folk’s to ‘pony’ up !
An East-West highway might just be what is needed to make a North Woods National Park a viable idea. A lot would depend upon the siting of it but by all means study. For those who want this highway you might consider the law of unintended consequences.
Possibly within this “Right of Way” Pipelines with crude oil, natural gas and and 100,000 lb chip trucks going to a fro on a highway to the Maine coast and a bridge to New Brunswick ??? hmmm I just might be inclined to think that the ole J.D. Irving corp might be one of the silent investors?? Just wondering is all :-/
Irving Corp has a refinery in St John, NB. Irving has arranged for about 6 RR tank car trains (104 cars per train, 50,000 barrels of crude) to pass through Maine, enroute to St John, in just the past 3-4 weeks. They are contracting for 15 of these trains a week by Sept of this year. Irving is deadly serious about transporting that midwest shale oil crude to St John. And it is half the cost to ship it in a pipeline, and one has already been proposed by TransCanada Corp, last month. It would be a lot shorter in Mr Vigues Corridor than up around the top of Maine.
Conservative estimates suggest such a pipeline, in Mr Vigues corridor could reap 15 million in profit annualy, for doing nothing except letting them put it there. Possible profits from all OTHER USES of this corridor make any possible profit from the road itself look like a Girl Scout cookie sale by comparison. There is huge money to be made in this corridor and most of it would not be made by the road itself, that is just the smoke and mirrors that is being used to sell it to the more gulllible amongst us.
The Irving presence dominates this project. That multi-billion dollar New Brunswick giant has many reasons to back such a venture, as cited. A high speed 220-mile link between the provinces is obviously being considered to carry something more than trucks.
feasible |ˈfēzəbəl|
adjective
possible to do easily or conveniently
The fact that they apparently can’t get one reputable firm to put in a bid to do the study doesn’t increase my confidence that the study will be useful. I may be cynical, but, if the study concluded that the highway isn’t economically feasible, I’d be very surprised.
Such a waste of money.
It is simply that they have not found the right company that will come up with the right conclusion to this analysis.
And while they “analyze the road project” how about an analysis of all the other uses of the road corridor that might be entertained, and just how lucrative they may be. Crude oil pipeline could be 12 to 15 million a year, for the corridor owners, just for letting them bury the pipe on thier land. Talk about easy money.
Lets do an analysis that will reveal the whole story as the promoters are not willing to talk about it.
Vigue says the road will be 220-miles long. So, how does he know the exact mileage, without knowing the exact route?
From St. Stephen, N.B. , to Coburn Gore hitting towns mentioned appears to make the highway much longer. Planners have revealed – so far – that the road “might” trot up to Costigan, nip over to Brownville then hit Dover-Foxcroft. After that it would zig zag across the state to Coburn Gore.
It reads more like a collection route than a direct road between provinces, and much longer than 220-miles.
“We have an impartial analytical role and are conducting the study in an independent manner.”
If the DOT’s role is supposed to be so impartial why would the commissioner of it, David Bernhardt travel to St. Stephen, New Brunswick to support it with Peter Vigue ?
(see this link)
http://bangor-launch.newspackstaging.com/2012/03/29/news/down-east/canadians-told-east-west-highway-through-maine-a-gateway-to-opportunity/