Can-do attitude key for highway proposal

MACHIAS – The man behind the idea of building a privately owned turnpike through Maine from Calais to Coburn Gore said Friday that there’s one thing in Maine he hopes the project will wipe out: Pessimism.

Peter Vigue, chairman of the Cianbro Cos., spoke Friday in Washington County about the turnpike. In the morning he talked to people gathered at Washington County Community College in Calais and in the afternoon to 25 people gathered in the Clipper Lounge at UMaine Machias. Vigue had been invited Down East to present his plan by the Sunrise County Economic Council, Machias Bay Chamber of Commerce and other groups.

Vigue readily admitted that the project is “extremely ambitious.”

It would use existing, privately owned right-of-ways, many of which have gravel roads that are owned and used by forest products companies, and would intersect with Interstate 95 north of Bangor. It would reduce the amount of time and fuel that is used now by transport companies that route thousands of trucks every day around the northern border of Maine on their way west from Atlantic Canada. And, if he has his way, it would be built by the end of 2014 to the tune of “well, in excess of $1 billion.”

But one of the biggest challenges to overcome, he said, is the sense that it cannot be done in Maine. He referred to Cianbro’s module fabrication project in Brewer as an example of what can be done in the state.

Cianbro spent two years developing the project concept to make sure it would be viable and then was faced with getting more than 20 permits to make it happen, he said.

Company officials met early on with representatives from all the permitting agencies and went over not just the minimum standards for the permits, but what the agencies would prefer to see out of the project. He said the company worked seven days a week to make sure everyone involved was satisfied and to get things underway.

“It will be 100 percent complete on May 1st,” Vigue said.

The highway project, he said, makes sense because eight of the top 10 investors in Maine are Canadian firms and the highway will encourage even more investment in Maine from north of the border.

But it will not benefit just Canadian companies, he added. Maine businesses that ship products to Canada and to the Midwest, such as Northeast Packaging Co. of Presque Isle and Lincoln Paper & Tissue, also will benefit by being able to get their shipments to their destinations more quickly. And, as a privately owned road, weight limits could be higher, which would save costs by allowing more cargo to be hauled by fewer tractor rigs and fewer people, he said.

The reason behind the 7-year goal, Vigue said, is to take advantage of changes in the global shipping industry. Large container ports are being developed in Nova Scotia, he said, and by building the turnpike, Maine could position itself to be a key part of the transportation corridor between Nova Scotia and points south and west, both in Canada and America.

“We are in the middle of the road, not the end of the road,” he said. “It has a huge benefit to the region.”

In the current economic climate, it is not feasible for the state or federal government to help pay for building the turnpike, Vigue said, which is one reason it should be privately funded and owned. Another is that public projects often are debated for long periods of time before they are realized, if at all. But developers should have the support and approval of government regulators to make the turnpike a reality, he said.

He said there is precedent for privately funded and owned roads serving the public’s needs. The perimeter highway around Dublin, Ireland, he said, is privately owned, as is the access road to Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C.

“It’s not a cakewalk,” Vigue said. “It’s going to take a lot of money, a lot of energy, and a lot of effort to make this happen.”