[Spitfire75]

MacDonald wants cargo centre, new roads for 'gateway' (http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia/story/2008/03/05/macdonald-gateway.html)

Premier Rodney MacDonald has unveiled details of a plan he hopes will turn Nova Scotia into an international powerhouse for handling cargo.

The Atlantic Gateway plan includes building roads for trucks alongside urban-area railway tracks, a cargo-handling logistics centre, and twinning of sections of the Trans-Canada Highway.

"Certainly it's my hope that by summer we could see something go forward," MacDonald told the Nova Scotia Chambers of Commerce Wednesday.

He said the province should take advantage of its location and deep, ice-free ports to take on more container traffic from around the world.

Federal infrastructure funding would cover some of the costs involved, the premier said, though most of the money would come through private-sector investment.

Specifically, the $300-million plan calls for:

* Widening the rail line through Halifax and building roads for trucks next to it.
* Building a freight-handling facility in Dartmouth's Burnside Industrial Park.
* Creating a new connector road to get in and out of the Burnside site.
* Twinning of Highway 104 from Antigonish to Port Hawkesbury.
* Dredging Sydney Harbour to allow for larger vessels.

"Yes, they are ambitious projects, but a multi-transportation corridor is going to get product onto the 100-series highways much more quickly," MacDonald said. "It's safer for our residents. It gets large truck traffic off our streets."

The premier said these changes to build up the freight business would revamp the province's economy.

Promise of public consultations

For people living in south-end Halifax, the new roads would change the shape of the neighbourhood.

Coun. Sue Uteck said the municipality looked at the possibility of using the existing railway cut for a trucking lane, but decided the estimated $52-million cost was too much.

The proposal didn't go over well with local residents, she added.

"There was a lot of objection to having additional trucks, as well as trains, in the cut," Uteck told CBC News.

Uteck said she has been assured by the premier's office there will be a round of public consultations when there are more details.

There's also a benefit to the municipality, she said, noting the premier's plan allows emergency vehicles and MetroLink buses to use the trucking corridor.

Port of Sydney pleased

Don Rowe, with the Port of Sydney, welcomed news that the port is included in the premier's transportation plans.

"It's the fact that they consider Sydney Harbour part of the gateway for Atlantic Canada," he said. "It gives it another level of support, and we think that's important."

Rowe estimates dredging the harbour will cost about $40 million. He said it needs to be completed by 2011 if Sydney is to take advantage of new opportunities.

---

Worth checking out the comments too

[someone123]

Interesting, although I wonder how this will work out with Halifax, the new container terminal, and Sydney all competing for cargo which is mostly destined for other areas.

Is this another case of self-sabotage by political correctness, where the province is simultaneously trying to prop up three competitors? That is a game we definitely cannot win when other, larger jurisdictions are spending much larger sums of money on single ports like New York.

[worldlyhaligonian]

I don't see the role of Sydney in this, they should focus on Halifax.

How long does it take to get to the NB boarder from Sydney vs. Halifax?

[skyscraper_1]

I don't see the role of Sydney in this, they should focus on Halifax.

How long does it take to get to the NB boarder from Sydney vs. Halifax?

It *might* be slightly faster from Sydney, but the port would be locked in ice for 2-3 months a year.

[Commoner]

I would be very surprised if the rail or road connection from Sydney to the NB border is faster than the same route from Halifax. Even factoring in slowness due to perhaps more crowding in the port of Halifax, the time by truck from Halifax to Truro is about 75 minutes, versus likely more than four hours from Sydney to Truro (the time/distance from Truro to NB is then the same in either scenario). Likewise the CN mainline from Halifax to Truro is rated 45 MPH in many sections for freight trains; I sincerely doubt any sections of the rail line from Sydney to Truro are rated that fast. You would also have the additional handling (time and expense) of transferring trains from the CBNS Railway at Truro to CN. all in all, the plan favours Halifax.

[sdm]

there is rumors of email surfacing from a number of naysayers in the south end trying to squash this proposal.

Somehow i am not surprised to here this as they were negative on it before.

MacDonald is from Cape Breton, i wonder why Sydney is being considered......

[kwajo]

I don't see the role of Sydney in this, they should focus on Halifax.

How long does it take to get to the NB boarder from Sydney vs. Halifax?
How long does it take cargo to get from the Port of Saint John to the New Brunswick border?

Oh wait.....



(yeah I know I'm being a jerk for no reason, but it's fun)

[terrynorthend]

How long does it take cargo to get from the Port of Saint John to the New Brunswick border?

Oh wait.....



Ah yes, but It takes much longer for a container ship to sail around southern NS and into Fundy than a truck to drive from Halifax or Sydney to Saint John. I wonder if a Melford Terminal would be competitive though. Its close to Truro, and presumably wouldn't have the delays that Halifax traffic puts on trucking.

[Halifax Hillbilly]

there is rumors of email surfacing from a number of naysayers in the south end trying to squash this proposal.

Somehow i am not surprised to here this as they were negative on it before.

MacDonald is from Cape Breton, i wonder why Sydney is being considered......

Sydney is being considered for the exact same reason the roads are so good around Mabou recently.

I can't imagine a south end citizens group would be able to stop a project with this much political backing. It's coming right out of the premiers office and there could be money from Ottawa to make it happen in a couple of years.

HRM wouldn't have the guts to try and shove a truck-way through the South End but I doubt it will cause the province this kind of problem.

[RyanNS]

I'm surprised the Port Hawkesbury port isn't mentioned here. Ice Free year round.

[Haliguy]

I'm surprised the Port Hawkesbury port isn't mentioned here. Ice Free year round.

I think one of the reasoning twinning the 104 from Antigonish to Port Hawkesbury is for the Straight area.

[hfx_chris]

Interesting idea some of the comments on the CH mention, why not just reinstall that second rail line along the west end, instead of paving it over and never having the option to bring it back. Then you wouldn't even need to bring trucks along a one-way road into the already crowded container terminal; just ship everything via trains to a central location where they can be transferred from train to truck, in a large enough space to accommodate all of the necessary trucks.

[Keith P.]

Interesting idea some of the comments on the CH mention, why not just reinstall that second rail line along the west end, instead of paving it over and never having the option to bring it back. Then you wouldn't even need to bring trucks along a one-way road into the already crowded container terminal; just ship everything via trains to a central location where they can be transferred from train to truck, in a large enough space to accommodate all of the necessary trucks.

I believe there is no belief that CN would operate a rail shuttle on a timely basis that could match that of trucks. CN's performance is a huge problem in the port, along with that of the labor force.

[Haliguy]

Interesting idea some of the comments on the CH mention, why not just reinstall that second rail line along the west end, instead of paving it over and never having the option to bring it back. Then you wouldn't even need to bring trucks along a one-way road into the already crowded container terminal; just ship everything via trains to a central location where they can be transferred from train to truck, in a large enough space to accommodate all of the necessary trucks.

That would just add time and be ineffective.

[hfx_chris]

More ineffective than the current backup of trucks waiting to get into the tight & crowded terminals?

[Smevo]

Just a little note about this, Sydney's not really competing with Halifax on this, though Melford could be. Sydney could never handle the same size of ship as these other two ports, it's not deep enough. The harbour dredging was being looked into anyway in relation to Donkin mine, and the highway twinning was already being planned 20 years ago, and still isn't going as far as it was supposed to yet. The designed route for the highway as far as the causeway is already done, with a request for designed routes being issued last year to take the highway from the strait to Sydney and/or the Nfld ferry terminal. It's more of a safety issue, and the planned Melford terminal (private money) is just accelerating the process a little more so we don't have to wait another 20 years to get 4 lanes to the causeway.

Sydney's port has a bulk terminal in constant operation formerly run by Devco, and has a crane which is sitting idle on the old SYSCO land with lots of room to store cargo of any kind, as well as the Sydport industrial park on the other side of the harbour, with rumours of a proposed new physical link between the two. That's the main reason it's being considered at all, and only to handle smaller traffic to take that backlog off the other two ports so they can focus on the larger ships. It's third in the pecking order of ports and that's where it will remain. It's moreso the plan of Harbourside Commercial Park than anything else. The only transportation advantage it might have is direct access to (what will be) twinned provincial highway (Hwy-125) via Spar Rd to get the truck traffic out of the populated areas quickly, though once it's off the 125, it's back to two lanes for now. It also has the rail lines running directly into it (a small bonus vs Melford) which connect directly to the rail lines on the mainland.

True, MacDonald is using this to try to win more votes in CB, Canso strait area and Halifax, but he's not telling us anything that wasn't already in the works, and none of these things were actually his idea. Halifax's port won't suffer from this, it's moreso a co-operation among the three ports than a competition. MacDonald will try to take the credit for this for a long time. As for the highway upgrades, trust me, it's only in his riding in Inverness County, our main highways in Richmond County, Cape Breton County, and Victoria County after you leave the TCH-105 are in rough shape. I won't even risk using Hwy-4 through CB County in the winter time even though it cuts 1/2hr off the 7hr trip from Fredericton...I'd have to have a death wish.

Halifax's only disadvantage is the traffic around the terminal, but it's not enough of a disadvantage to really hinder it in this plan. :cheers:

[reddog794]

HFX_Chris, I gotta agree with you, a train simply moves more than a truck, and as we use more and more oil, it's going to get comparatively cheaper to run trains.

What should be going on with the gateway money is a rerailification (spell check is telling me it's not a word, bah!) of the region. If we had a better rail system, both Halifax and Sydney would take off faster, without the petty competition, that might plague them with short sighted investments.

[someone123]

I've heard from many sources that the rail service is one of the biggest disadvantages at the port but I'm not sure what the province can do to improve connections all the way to areas in the Midwest.

I can find articles dated 100 years ago that contain similar complaints.

The labour issue is also interesting and I can see how it would be difficult to address.

For years now there's been the claim that Halifax is guaranteed to see large increases in traffic because of larger ships that can't make it into other ports. Has this simply not happened yet? Are labour and rail service problems causing the port of Halifax to lose whatever business it would have captured? Was this all just bogus to begin with? No matter how you spin it, performance in terms of container traffic at the port has been lacklustre even compared to major East Coast ports.

[Keith P.]

For years now there's been the claim that Halifax is guaranteed to see large increases in traffic because of larger ships that can't make it into other ports. Has this simply not happened yet? Are labour and rail service problems causing the port of Halifax to lose whatever business it would have captured? Was this all just bogus to begin with? No matter how you spin it, performance in terms of container traffic at the port has been lacklustre even compared to major East Coast ports.


It's certainly due to a combination of factors but definitely the advantage Halifax has in regard to big ships has not been exploited. Part of it is the rail connection, part of it is the labor cost, and a big part of it is the management of the two port operations (Ceres and Halterm) and that of the Port Corporation itself. CN Rail has certainly not done us any favors and neither has the longshoremen's union. There is a serious reality check needed, but if you're making 6 figures as a longshoreman as a great many do then why would you want to change?

[Haliguy]

Rail corridor won’t be cheap
4-year-old study estimates price tag at between $40 million and $51 million
By TOM PETERS Business Reporter
Thu. Mar 20 - 6:57 AM

[This is a stretch of the CN railway passing through the west end of Halifax. Premier Rodney MacDonald proposes using the rail cut to create a transportation corridor for transport trucks and railcars that would link the south-end container terminal to Highway 102. (TED PRITCHARD / Staff)</p>]

This is a stretch of the CN railway passing through the west end of Halifax. Premier Rodney MacDonald proposes using the rail cut to create a transportation corridor for transport trucks and railcars that would link the south-end container terminal to Highway 102. (TED PRITCHARD / Staff)



The cost of reconfiguring the CN rail cut from south-end Halifax to Fairview to relieve downtown Halifax truck congestion won’t be cheap, says an engineering study done four years ago.

A report by Marshall Macklin Monaghan Ltd. of Toronto and Atlantic Road and Traffic Management of Halifax looked at five options, with only two considered real possibilities.

Halifax Regional Municipality commissioned the report.

One option would cost $40 million, the second nearly $51 million. Those costs do not include allowances for replacing, rebuilding and excavating near bridges.

Costs would now be higher because of inflation. And if the project was ever done under a private-public partnership, as suggested by the province, daily operating costs for those using the corridor could be covered with a toll.

The topic of a multi-transportation corridor using the CN rail cut resurfaced when Premier Rodney MacDonald announced several weeks ago the list of projects the province would like to see included as part of the Atlantic Gateway strategy.

The cost of these projects, including the rail cut, would be in excess of $300 million, with funding coming from governments and the private sector.

Most of the downtown truck traffic comes from the Halterm container terminal. The premier said using the rail cut would move trucks away from the downtown out to Fairview, where they could connect with the Bicentennial Highway. The premier also said the corridor could be used by buses and emergency vehicles.

David McCusker, the municipality’s manager of transportation planning, said Tuesday the purpose of doing the study was to get an understanding of the project before any decisions are made.

"We did that study intentionally without the involvement of CN because we had heard it couldn’t be done," he said. "We wanted to have an understanding ourselves of what could be done and what couldn’t be done so it gave us some background information before we went into further discussions and negotiations with CN."

The $40-million option is a single roadway alongside the rail track. Traffic would have to follow daily direction schedules. Rail operations would not be affected.

The second option proposed two paved lanes with the rail track embedded in a traffic lane. When trains were not using the corridor, both lanes could be used for traffic. When trains were in the corridor, only one lane would handle traffic. Special traffic signals would be needed.

The first option, if used, would require a waiting area for vehicles at each end of the corridor. The cost of developing these staging areas was not included in the study.

The study also talks about additional excavation of the rail cut and a property acquisition allowance for both options. Expropriation of private land would be a possibility.

A CN spokeswoman said Wednesday there have been no formal talks with the province, but CN is open to discuss the corridor project.

Mr. MacDonald said recently the province is anxious to move forward with the work.

"We hope to get this announced in the next number of months and begin work as soon as possible, this year or next year," he told reporters after a recent cabinet meeting.

Local and international experts said Wednesday they don’t believe the rail cut changes will solve the problem. They say the rail cut would just move congestion points to the edge of peninsular Halifax.

It does not address the fact that over 60 per cent of regional container traffic moves by truck from points beyond Truro. They say several other ports have addressed this type of problem by building inland ports adjacent to the main rail line in greenfield locations.

Containers would be shuttled by rail from the port to a logistics park. The concept of a logistics park in the Burnside area does not fit this model as it is not on the CN main line, said the experts, who asked not to be named. If the Gateway strategy is to succeed, there needs to be a greenfield inland facility on the CN mainline with lots of room for expansion in close proximity to Halifax, they say.

They cited the Virginia inland port as a successful example.

Stephen Greene, the premier’s deputy chief of staff, said Tuesday the province "hasn’t released costs on any particular piece of what was announced and the reason for that is the federal government has to come to the table."

However, he said costs in the 2004 study "are no doubt in the ballpark."

Mr. Greene said Ottawa has set aside $2.1 billion over seven years to assist funding of Gateway projects.

He said the memorandum of understanding signed last fall between Ottawa and the four Atlantic provinces outlined a process that could take up to two years just to get project lists assembled and submitted for approval.

"We in Nova Scotia have been talking and thinking about Gateway for a long time and the other provinces have not, so we are probably a lot more advanced in the development of our list of projects," he said.

He suggested it could be awhile before there are any federal announcements.

"The ball is in their court," he said.

( tpeters@herald.ca)

[Spitfire75]

The $40-million option is a single roadway alongside the rail track. Traffic would have to follow daily direction schedules. Rail operations would not be affected.

The second option proposed two paved lanes with the rail track embedded in a traffic lane. When trains were not using the corridor, both lanes could be used for traffic. When trains were in the corridor, only one lane would handle traffic. Special traffic signals would be needed.

Really? Why not just try and get more cargo on the tracks?

It does not address the fact that over 60 per cent of regional container traffic moves by truck from points beyond Truro. They say several other ports have addressed this type of problem by building inland ports adjacent to the main rail line in greenfield locations.

I know Truro has quite a bit of tracks, probably just aren't being used. If they had more train traffic from Halifax, maybe they would.

[Smevo]

I don't get why the proponents of the Atlantic Gateway are so set on using the highway system. I'll be happy for the upgrades, but I'd rather the gateway use the rail lines the full length to their destination. Less wear on the highways, less fuel emissions into the air, it's a win-win. BC's twinning it's rail lines for the Pacific Gateway, but on this coast, I guess we'd rather burn money we don't have replacing asphalt every other year. :rolleyes:

Let's see, which moves more, a transport truck or a cargo train. hmmm....
That new roadway and parking area sounds like an enormous waste of money. Whether it's just one lane or two-lanes-sometimes-one-lane-the-rest, it's not going to move things very effectively, and you'll still have truck backlogs at the port.