Officials in Saint John, New Brunswick, renewed their push this month for an international study of an east-west highway.

The Saint John, New Brunswick, Common Council on April 2 approved a resolution that calls upon the Canadian government to join with the U.S. Department of Transportation to evaluate the possibility of a trade corridor from Atlantic Canada through Bangor and westward.

Similar resolutions are making their way through legislative bodies in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.

Edward Farren, Saint John’s intergovernmental affairs officer, said the cooperative study would provide valuable and new information about how the added transportation link could affect the region’s economy.

“In looking at how we might better prosper as a region, this would be a great public service,” Farren said of the study, which would be conducted under the terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA. “It would be the first economic study of how we might relate to Midwestern markets and where places like Montreal or Albany or Bangor or Saint John might fit into the continuum.”

A four-lane east-west highway through northern New England has been touted by some as a means of aiding the area’s lagging economy by improving trade routes between the Maritime Provinces and Quebec.

The estimated $1 billion price tag for the Maine stretch of the new highway has, in part, mobilized the plan’s detractors, many of whom favor less costly improvements to Routes 2 and 9. Opponents also contend that the costly new highway would benefit Canadian truckers more than Maine residents.

Former Bangor Mayor Timothy Woodcock, a longtime supporter of a new east-west route, said he applauded the Canadian city’s call for what would prove to be an ambitious study.

“[The study] would touch on areas beyond the capabilities of a single state or province or, really, one nation, to assess,” said Woodcock, who in March announced his intention to seek the 2nd District congressional seat now held by U.S. Rep. John Baldacci. “It should tell us what opportunities might be available … if we make whatever improvements, and at the same time it should tell us what opportunities we may lose without them.”