A container port on Sears Island in Searsport would be well-positioned to catch the rising tide of cargo being shipped to U.S. markets from Asia and elsewhere, according to a study commissioned by the Department of Transportation. That is good news for the region, and for the ongoing efforts by transportation officials in New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, and the Canadian Maritime provinces, to develop a shipping corridor that leads from the North Atlantic to the Midwest.

The inquiry into the viability of a container port on state-owned Sears Island was conducted by The Cornell Group as part of a stakeholder planning process for the island. The first phase of the planning led to an agreement that sets aside 600 acres of the island for conservation, and reserves 341 acres for a possible container port. The report, to be presented this week to the stakeholder committee working to delineate the conservation and port areas, suggests a great opportunity for a two-berth container port.

Among the report’s findings are that container port capacity in the North Atlantic will not keep up with demand; it is expected to grow from 10 million, 20-foot equivalent container units currently to 17.8 million units by 2015.

Additionally, to avoid vessel delays, North Atlantic ports will need to add at least 43 percent more capacity than is currently planned and a new, modern container facility on Sears Island could capture cargo from East Coast competitors.

Currently, ports as far south Savannah, Ga., and Charleston, S.C., ship significant volumes of cargo to Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland and elsewhere in the Midwest. Even with expansions at East Coast ports, a container facility on Sears Island would be well-positioned to serve the Midwest markets, in part because cargo would arrive at its destination more quickly if shipped by rail from Searsport.

The Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway could easily build a link to the island from its Mack Point terminal. The MMA is able to ship “double stack” containers to Montreal from Searsport, a capability not shared by the port in Portland, making a Sears Island container port especially efficient.

The report estimates the cost of developing a Sears Island container port at $194 million. If it is built, winners in the Maine economy include port operators, government agencies handling customs, trucking companies, rail operators, ship agents, inland warehouse operators and manufacturing plants that sell products abroad. The Cornell Group projects that 2,205 jobs would be created, and $5.6 million in taxes generated.

Despite the rosy economic projections, private funds should pick up the bulk of the construction tab. If market forces justify the port, the market should compel a private developer to build the port, albeit with logistical assistance from DOT and others. Those who worked to conserve the rest of the island should be included in the planning, so as to minimize impact to the valuable 600 protected acres.

And then there are the permitting hurdles, which were so costly to meet in the late 1990s that the state pulled its Sears Island container port bid. Again, a private developer, and not the state, should take on the risk of getting a port approved.

Still, the projected potential for Maine to return to its shipping heritage, in a big way, is important economic news, and should be greeted as such, if also further quantified.