Bush Administration Quietly Plans NAFTA Super Highway

I doubt it will ever be finished, the US can't maintain the roads they have already built, and gas prices will continue to rise over the next century until container truck transport is no longer viable.

This is the exact opposite to the direction we need to be heading if we're going to survive the end of cheap oil. I feel sorry for the poor taxpayers who are going to have to pay for this goose of fool's gold.

Didn't you know about the other one further west - Canamex?<br />
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Read all about it at <a href="http://www.canamex.org/">http://www.canamex.org/</a> <br />
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<p>Regarding the article,</p> <blockquote>One glance at the map of the NAFTA Super Highway on the front page of the NASCO website will make clear that the design is to connect Mexico, Canada, and the U.S. into one transportation system.</blockquote> <p>um, don’t we have <i>already</i> one interconnected transportation system?</p> <blockquote>A good reason Bush does not want to secure the border with Mexico may be that the administration is trying to create express lanes for Mexican trucks to bring containers with cheap Far East goods into the heart of the U.S., all without the involvement of any U.S. union workers on the docks or in the trucks.</blockquote> <p>The reason given is certainly plausible, but I don’t see its connection with not securing the Mexican border. A likelier reason for not securing the border would be maintaining a domestic supply of willing, inexpensive labour.</p> <p>So far Mexican trucking in the States has been limited to within a certain distance of the border, ostensibly due to their truck emissions standards not matching our own; I presume that the NASCO rail corridor is being kept as an option if they are unable to modify that legislation.</p> <hr> <p>Ed,</p> <blockquote>We can rest assured that the Liberal and Conservative Parties of Canada are fully behind this scheme and most likely have the plans ready to connect to this monstrosity.</blockquote> <p>the <a href="http://www.nascocorridor.com/naipn/index.html">NASCO map</a> shows <a href="http://www.nascocorridor.com/naipn/pages/winnipeg.html">Winnipeg</a> as being one of the hubs in the proposed network. Curiously, the map also shows Churchill as being a hub — wasn’t that the place that was sold to someone for $10 some years back?</p> <hr> <p>Sgt,</p> <blockquote>the US can’t maintain the roads they have already built,</blockquote> <p>not <i>can’t</i>, but <i>won’t</i>. Part of the original proposal for the interstate highway system was that Congress would pay a fixed percentage of the costs of its upkeep. Sometimes Congress has followed through; sometimes it has with strings attached (e.g. requiring states to pass certain legislation on speed limits, seat belt laws, &c. to receive the money in a given session); and sometimes it hasn’t followed through. The intergovernmental fingerpointing (“no, <i>you</i> pay for it!”) often results in, er, gridlock, and in those years maintenance suffers.</p><p>---<br>Shatter your ideals upon the rock of Truth.<br />
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— The Divine Symphony, by Inayat Khan<br />

Here is another one - from Alberta's point of view.<br />
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<a href="http://www.infratrans.gov.ab.ca/INFTRA_Content/docType59/Production/Canamex-Trade-Brochure.pdf">www.infratrans.gov.ab.ca/INFTRA_Content/docType59/Production/Canamex-Trade-Brochure.pdf</a>

Not much chance of Mexican trucks driving down any super highway in the states. Because those trucks don't comply with today's saftey standards, they are banned now. Teamsters would be blocking them at the gate. Canadian ports have some pretty modern facilities and Churchill is one of the few northern ports open during the winter. Trucking and containerized freight is quick but for such a distance it would still be cheaper by rail. But then again George plans on the worlds biggest embassy in Iraq. In his veiw, as long as it's big it's good.

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Expect little from life and get more from it.

<a href="http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=11478">http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=11478</a><br />
"It’s a long way from Las Vegas to Alberta, but water entrepreneurs do not think small. Some 20 years ago, the North American Water and Power Alliance proposed to dam most of the rivers in British Columbia and divert the water into the United States and Mexico" <p>---<br>RickW<br />
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"The purpose of economic competition is to eliminate competition"...." - John Kenneth Galbraith

A railway system would make more sense... but then that doesn't generate huge profits for vested interests. Sgt already said it, and does warrant repeating - oil isn't forever, so building something like this is very short-sighted.

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If there was ever a time for Canadians to become pushy - now is the time - for time is running out on this nation called Canada.

There is already a direct rail system from Chicago direct to Guadaljara. There is a very large manufacturing base there. They use rail, because truck traffic often has their containers misappropriated. The road system beyond Chihuahua isn't very good, and is not conducive to heavy trucks. The main truck lanes are in Northern Mexico... all other transport links are done by rail already. Until a major infrastructure spend happens this will remain. This is also one of the reasons that poverty exists on a larger scale the farther south one travels... the jobs don't exist because the cheap labour can't take advantage of itself since the logistics is so poor. The shanty towns in the north and the poverty that occurs there are generally from southerners migrating north to try and either obtain a job or skip into the US.

<a href="http://www.committeerepubliccanada.ca/spip/article.php3?id_article=46">http://www.committeerepubliccanada.ca/spip/article.php3?id_article=46</a><br />
Perhaps, when they go through with an updated version of NAWAPA, and the 1400 miles long Rocky Mountain Trench becomes a south flowing lake, the super highway can be built alongside, for a very scenic trip.<br />
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PS. In keeping with the free market, I wonder if this highway will be a toll road..........?<p>---<br>RickW<br />
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"The purpose of economic competition is to eliminate competition"...." - John Kenneth Galbraith

Super-wide Highway <br />
From Another Perspective<br />
By Ted Twietmeyer<br />
tedtw@frontiernet.net<br />
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<a href="http://www.rense.com/general72/texx.htm">http://www.rense.com/general72/texx.htm</a><p>---<br>The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.... : Albert Einstein

You ever read Hienlien? "The Roads must Roll"

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"I think it's important to always carry enough technology to restart civilization, should it be necessary." Mark Tilden