BANGOR — Like an entire generation of Mainers, Mayor Timothy Woodcock first heard the “You can’t get theah from heah” joke as a youngster.

“I thought it was hilarious,” he recalled. But there was no humor in Woodcock’s voice when he referred to the punch line Monday evening during a City Council workshop on the need for a $1.1 billion east-west highway crossing Maine.

“That old Bert & I joke just isn’t funny anymore,” he said in encouraging the panel to get behind the proposed project, which has been spearheaded in the Legislature by representatives such as Bangor’s Jane Saxl.

“I’m going to ask you to authorize $10,000, but appropriate $5,000” right away, Woodcock said, money that would be made available for advocacy efforts and to support research by the University of Maine’s Canadian-American Center on the highway proposal. Funds for economic development were approved last June during the budget process.

He added that a private institution has pledged $5,000, and a nearby municipality is leaning toward making the same contribution.

The councilors concurred with Woodcock, and the group is expected to formally approve the second $5,000 in a council order next month.

The proposed road, a four-lane highway with limited access, would affect much more than just the Greater Bangor area. It could be an economic boon for several counties of the state.

The new highway would run from Calais on the eastern border of the state to Bangor, then pick up I-95 to Newport, and branch off again toward Skowhegan, where it would split into two routes, Woodcock said, one heading west to northern New Hampshire, one heading northwest to Coburn Gore.

Mayors Woodcock and Janet Cobb have been speaking up regularly for the east-west highway from the moment of their elections by their councils in Bangor and Brewer.

“This is just so important to our area,” Cobb said Tuesday. “On some level, we are really fighting for what is going to be the future of Maine. We need to have more than tourism.”

The road will draw development and use by residents, tourists and companies transporting goods, just as the interstate did, she said. “If we wait for a traffic count to dictate it, it will never be done.”

Gov. Angus King has often cited statistics showing that the vast majority of development occurs within 10 miles of the interstate, Cobb said, and the same growth would take place along the east-west highway.

Woodcock’s enthusiasm for the project was, if possible, fueled even further last week when he attended a steering committee meeting at Eastern Maine Development Center sponsored by the Maine Partnership.

“It was a fascinating meeting,” Woodcock said of the gathering, where participants included former transportation commissioners Dana Connors and George Campbell, and representatives of the Canadian-American Center and the Margaret Chase Smith Center in Skowhegan.

“We were told by the Margaret Chase Smith Center that the largest inter-province trade was between Quebec and the Maritimes,” Woodcock told the council, all provinces surrounding the state.

And Calais is the seventh busiest port-of-entry between the United States and Canada, added city manager Edward Barrett.

Woodcock said other facts he learned at the meeting were that Maine is one of only three states without an east-west highway, that it is last in infrastructure development, and that Montreal is only 40 miles farther from Bangor than Boston.

“I think it’s money well spent, and what are we waiting for,” commented councilor James Tyler of the $10,000. Tyler has for several years represented the city on the Bangor Area Comprehensive Traffic Study, which takes into account several modes of transportation.

He added that the area already is served by two railroads, an international airport, and a north-south Interstate.

The project would help improve not only the Bangor area, Woodcock said Tuesday, but several counties that are very much in need of economic growth.

“There have been studies in the past” about an east-west highway, he pointed out, but they didn’t come to fruition. “As Maine looks anew at the highway concept, we should look at whether failing to do it inhibited growth in those areas,” and contributed to hard times in Washington County, for example.

The $10,000 the city will set aside is expected to come from the extra $25,000 the council tucked away in the budget last June on a motion by Councilor Michael Aube.

Aube, who served as the state’s commissioner of economic development from 1992-1995, said Tuesday, “I thought we ought to have some flexible dollars available to seek opportunities as they arise during the year.”

A year ago, he said, he didn’t see the east-west highway as “catching on the momentum it has,” but he was pleased the city had the money when things began happening.

The steering committee of the Maine Partnership will continue to work on the issue, meetings Aube has attended. A public forum has been tentatively set for February, while the Legislature is in session.

“It’s going to be a fast session,” Aube said. “It could be over by April 1,” so those interested in the east-west highway want to get the questions out there and raise support for the first steps toward building a highway.

The road, in its entirety, could take more than a dozen years to complete, but city officials believe it would be worth it.

The reason the Bert & I joke isn’t funny any more is because it’s true, Woodcock said. It’s not easy to get there from here. His dream is that “the day would come and someone would tell the joke — and we wouldn’t get it.”