WINNIPEG – A proposal for a trucks-only toll road from Winnipeg to Duluth, Minnesota is going nowhere fast according to Canadian truckers and transportation experts.
A Washington, D.C. firm made the proposal last November to the Minnesota Department of Transportation. The department was looking for toll road ideas.
James Ball, president of Transportation Industries International, said he believes grain from Manitoba and North Dakota could move more economically and safely to the port of Duluth if truckers had a road they could call their own.
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“They have to traverse hundreds of miles of two-lane highways where there are both trucks and automobiles. It’s an inherently unsafe situation,” said the civil engineer.
The 600-kilometre road would be built to withstand heavy trucks that now aren’t allowed on U.S. highways.
But a transportation department spokesperson said the proposal isn’t going anywhere at the moment.
Shayla Tate said the department chose another proposal last month for an urban toll road to move to the next stage of negotiations. Ball has asked for reconsideration.
“We thought it was a very intriguing and innovative suggestion, but two things that we found lacking was the amount of financial support required not only from the state but from the federal government … and a lot of serious environmental impacts that we’d have to look into,” Tate said.
Ball said the project would cost more than $1 billion U.S. He said government help would be needed initially. But he planned to find private investors who could get their investment back through the value of the stock of the company operating the highway.
Plus, truckers would pay 1.2 cents per ton per mile (.82 cents per tonne per kilometre) to travel the road. If 1,200 trucks per day went down the road, the company could recover its operating and maintenance costs.
Not too enthusiastic
But the general manager of the Manitoba Trucking Association said he needs more details before he could get excited about the concept.
“It’s such an odd idea,” said Al Harris. “I have found no real support for it, and … I don’t know what the objective of the road is.”
Grain doesn’t move to Duluth, Harris and other industry representatives said, although CN has a rail line from Winnipeg to the port.
Any savings created by being able to haul heavier loads would be eaten up by the toll charge, Harris said, particularly since there would be nothing to haul back to Canada.
Paul Kennedy, marketing director for the Thunder Bay Harbor Commission, said he doesn’t think a lot of grain would come down the proposed toll road.
“I don’t believe that you could move grain across that road at a cost comparable to what the Canadian railroads move grain to Thunder Bay for,” he said, adding transportation costs are critical in every grain sales decision made today.
Kennedy said he doesn’t know of any Canadian grain moving through Duluth, adding some people may look at the option because of upcoming higher coast guard fees at the Lakehead.
