April 12, 2012 ~ Chris Notes
Women’s Transportation Seminar hosts Peter Vigue at Senator Inn, Augusta
-humble from Pittsfield and had good fortue
-has watched transformation of economy w/in last 25 years, especially in Northern ME
-communities already have infrastructure in place
-unemployment is over 14%, people are underutilized
-Peter asks, how do we move up?
-for Peter, connectivity
-we can’t export to China, etc., and we need to
-we don’t have an economic plan for ME
-Peter travels outside of ME to increase opportunity for Cianbro
-people here are highly skilled
-“perception is in the eye of the beholder”
-we do perceive ourselves as at the end of the road
-multiple Canadian companies who are top investors in ME
-Chris ?: how much more $ would we get if they were ME owned
Note: Peter has changed presentation to note “East-West Corridor”
-consumers pay for transportation costs (in general)
-route through Bangor, Newport, Skowhegan, Bethel, etc. is too expensive to build, and will take too long (25 years)
Point: -with all those Canadian investors in ME, why is MDOT going out of business? why is Maine’s middle “hollow”?
-there will be a RR facility East of the Penobscot river, and another intermodal at Brownville
-Wildlife Crossings-
-HW will be fenced, and allow for crossings
-it will be a demonstration for all other roads around the U.S. and beyond
-“Long-Term Transportation, Utility, and Communications Corridor”-
-“transmission lines, gas lines, all of that” are used all over the place (Peter placed his hands over each other to show how they sprawl all around)
-confine utilities to 1 swath of clear cutting
-corridor is a collaborative approach
-ME becomes the NorthEast Trade Gateway
-“dynamic approaches to competing in a global economy”
-i.e. building modules like they do in Brewer and sending them to the Nickel plan (I believe in Labrador, CA)
-example of Maine manufacturers of trunk liners for cars that ships to the Midwest and needs to transport product w/in 24 hours
-fills Maine’s hollow middle- all of these rural communities in northern and central ME
-they are not attacking the North ME woods, due to the fact that is it south of them
-Peter brought up example of Brunswick, and how wide the streets are in that community but that it’s still a vibrant downtown
-one of the best planned, Peter thinks
-the highway is taxable
-jobs: people employed for highway maintenance
-tourism: will increase access to Sugarloaf
-“planning at this current time 6 interchanges”
-Cianbro doesn’t build roads, but bridges and structures
questions:
-does have a highly interested investor
-will cross 2 major rivers, and 20 smaller structures for smaller waterways
-they will work with Audubon, Nature Conservancy, and others
-proposed MPH: 75 mph, not currently planned to have a bike path but he’s open to listen to public demand
-car toll: can’t determine cost yet, depends on projected traffic count, but, the toll should be attractive to cars.
-truck toll: “toll is 1/3 or less” of how much is costs now for trucks to drive around ME
-talked about ME as the “bread basket of the NE”
-Betty Noyes created Libra foundation to promote economy in in northern ME
-supports growers of barley, that feed all natural cows that are process in the Midwest and sold for $15/lb
-branding: ME has special privilege to brand products because people want stuff from ME
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