The Port of Halifax is worried its international shipping reputation could be damaged because of blockades of CN Rail’s tracks in Ontario.
Lane Farguson, spokesman for the local port authority which oversees the two container terminal operations in Halifax Harbour, warns an inability to move cargo will see shipping lines divert to competing ports such as New York, perhaps permanently.
“Once cargo routes are altered, it is difficult, and sometimes impossible, to restore them,” Farguson tells The Notebook.
The blockades on the main CN Rail line are a show of solidarity for the Wet’suwet’en First Nation, whose hereditary chiefs oppose the construction of a 670-kilometre natural gas pipeline through northern British Columbia.
Halifax’s port is seen as a ‘discretionary port’ because it has a smaller population catchment area than ports in New York and Montreal, both of which are closer to consumers.
With the CN Rail blockade continuing near Belleville, Ont., the Port of Halifax over the last two weeks has been unable to process export or import cargo.
Cargo from Ontario and the U.S. Midwest has not been able to move on CN’s Eastern Canadian network because of the rail blockade, and import cargo from Southeast Asia and Europe can’t be processed in Halifax and delivered to customers.
Until now, Atlantic Container Line (ACL) has maintained calls here, but company CEO Andy Abbott told The Notebook this week that two of its ships, Atlantic Sail and Atlantic Star, will bypass Halifax on their way to Europe from New York.
A tree cutting contract valued at $171,138 on the next part of the 103 HWY to be constructed between the Ingramport interchange and Hubbards has been awarded to Wagner Forest NS Ltd.
There were a total of four bids for the tree clearing contract received.
N.R. Kenney Logging Ltd., submitted a bid of $283,800; R. Maclean Forestry Ltd., quoted $270,726; Nova Hydroseeding & Erosion Control bid $224,800.
A shipping customer in the Port of Halifax since 1970, Atlantic Container Line (ACL) has resolved its on time delivery schedule times in Halifax and other U.S. East Coast port of calls – a five year problem related to the delivery over that period of next generation container roll on/roll off vessels.
That’s the word from New York based ACL CEO, Andy Abbott.
“ACL’s schedule performance has been lousy for five years as we fixed the teething problems on our new ships”, the shipping exec tells The Notebook.
As incredible as it seems, Potter, the founder and proprietor of the region’s largest road builder, Dexter Construction, went up against the biggest global road builders on the planet – and he bested giants with his sharper bidding pencil, leaving behemoth contractors from France & Spain in the dust, when he was awarded the lucrative $300 million 104 HWY twinning work last Thursday.
Over my lifetime, I have met many legendary road builders and also the great engineers employed with the NS Highways department.
With third-generation road builder Donald Chisholm forming an historic partnership with once fierce rival Dexter Construction to win the $300 million 40-kilometre twinning of a real deathtrap the 104 HWY, the win for the Nova Construction owner gives credence to his native Antigonish as a community road building force.
Donald Chisholm comes from a long line of Clan Chisholm highly successful road builders.
To understand NS Highway minister Lloyd Hines aggressive pursuit to twin the 104, 103 & 101 HWYs, and its significant meaning on the Nova Scotia economy, I have studied an economic impact assessment on the ambitious twinning program.
Consulting firm Canmac Economics Ltd, was hired in the last few years by the Nova Scotia Roadbuilders Association boss, Grant Feltmate to study the economic benefits of the circa $800 million twinning programs now underway across the province.
For decades, the Nova Scotia Roadbuilders Association operated a closed shop across the province – preventing road builders from outside the province from bidding – back in 1949, when the association was formed, and well into the 1980s, only road builders from Nova Scotia were active in the provincial road building industry.
But, that began to change in the 1990s, when Prince Edward Island’s Chapman Brothers around 1994 nabbed a paving job in Cape Breton.
Exclusive: Highways Minister Lloyd Hines To Explore Twinning Options to Bridgewater & Canso Causeway
Now that the fourth and final major twinning project is soon to see a construction start, I refer to the 104 HWY from New Glasgow outskirts to Antigonish, NS Highways minister Lloyd Hines is now going to mull over options to twin the 103 HWY all the way to Bridgewater.
And, he also tells The Notebook, he will also commence a study to determine how to twin all the way to the Canso Causeway.
