Senator says Canada moves ahead of U.S. northern border project
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has asked the General Services Administration to budget at least $3 million for construction of the new Calais-St. Stephen border crossing station.
The existing border crossing, the eighth-busiest commercial crossing on the Canadian border, is heavily congested and has seen truck traffic double over the last 10 years, the letter said.
GSA is responsible for designing and constructing the border station. A delay in funding could push back the project at least one year, Collins said, citing a Maine Department of Transportation analysis.
Canada recently said it will spend $60 million for highway and bridge improvements, as well as an inspection station, on its side of the project.
'With Canadian funding already in place for their portion of the project, the prospect of further delay is unacceptable,' Collins said in a letter to GSA. She asked that adequate funding for the project be include in the agency's 2005 budget request.