Clark's I-98 Testimony

Jason A. Clark, executive director of the Business Development Corporation for a Greater Massena and chair of the Northern Corridor Transportation Group testified Monday in front of the New York State Joint Legislative Hearing on Transportation.

I would like to thank you for the opportunity to participate in today's hearing and I would like to particularly thank Assemblywoman Russell for arranging the invitation. I am the executive director of the Business Development Corporation for a Greater Massena, the chair of the Northern Corridor Transportation Group and a member of the National Steering Committee of the Mayor's Automotive Coalition. As irony would have it; I'm not a Mayor.

I am here today, however, as the voice of more than 1,000 mayors, supervisors, trustees, councilors, school board members, fire commissioners and other elected officials from the seven county region known as the north country to speak about the importance of prioritizing the construction of the Interstate 98 corridor.

Prior discussions have referred to the project as the Can-Am Highway, the Rooftop Highway and a moniker that we don't like at all; the Northern Tier Expressway.

The Interstate 98 corridor project has four distinct components that, when constructed as one, will significantly enhance the overall competitiveness of New York state in the open, international market.

Four parts: a stand-alone, limited-access, four-lane highway built to Interstate standards; a multi-purpose recreational trail that parallels the roadway; upgraded rail infrastructure and a broadband backbone are the cornerstones of the project.

The Interstate 98 discussion has been active for nearly 75 years. The first legislative action took place in 1961 when then Senator Bob McEwen introduced the idea of constructing an east-west Interstate across the northern border of the state as a means of expanding foreign commerce opportunities with Canada and Europe. New York State Department of Transportation files date back to 1937.

So why is it important? For 50 years, the economy of the north country has been in decline. I realize that there are unrelenting issues in this state but this is an endemic issue.

During that time, poverty and unemployment rates have consistently been the highest in the state. Similarly, educational attainment levels and per capita incomes have consistently remained the lowest.

In the past five years alone, more than one third of all manufacturing jobs in the north country have been lost. The reason: economic isolation that has been caused by a lack of infrastructure.

The Interstate 98 corridor was intended to be the second phase of the St. Lawrence Seaway project. The economic impact of the Seaway has never been met because it lacked the critical multi-modal infrastructure necessary to interface with the rest of the nation's transportation system.

Three and a half million people live due north of the north country in the cities of Montreal, Ottawa and their suburbs.

Companies located there want to do business in the United States. Despite proximity of only 80 miles to New York communities like Massena and Ogdensburg, most of those companies expand operations to locations outside of New York because of the limited transportation infrastructure along the border.

It is widely understood that companies will not expand to or locate in an area that is more than 35 miles from an Interstate highway and yet much of the north country is located at least 75 miles from such a connection. The north country is the only region of New York state with this most dubious of distinctions. This has been a lost opportunity.

The Independent Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimates that approximately 27,000 permanent jobs will be created as a result of the construction of the Interstate 98 corridor.

The project would conceivably connect the international bridges at Massena and Ogdensburg, the international Port of Ogdensburg and international land crossings at Trout River, Churubusco, Chateaugay and Fort Covington to the federal interstate system thereby fostering a mechanism for significantly expanded trade activity with Canada and Europe.

That's correct; seven international points of entry to the most populated region in Canada being connected to the Federal Interstate system. 3.5 Million People.

As I have said so many times, 27,000 jobs created anywhere in New York State will help ease the tax burden for all New Yorkers.

In the files of the New York state Department of Transportation, there are scores of Can-Am studies and economic development reports that justify the economic feasibility of this project.

The most noteworthy reports given their timeliness are the North Country Transportation Study, which was published in 2002 by Wilbur Smith Associates at a cost of more than a million dollars, the Northern-Tier Expressway Study which was published in 2008 by Wilbur Smith Associates, again at a cost of more than a million dollars and the North Country Freight Needs Study that was published in 2010 by Wilbur Smith Associates at a cost of three hundred thousand dollars.

The first study discussed the feasibility and economic impact of constructing a stand-alone, limited-access, four-lane highway built to Interstate standards that would connect Interstate 81 near Watertown to Interstate 87 near Plattsburgh.

The second study refuted those findings but the third study reconfirmed the findings of the first one. We are back to where we started a decade ago.

With feasibility studies complete, the next step in the process toward construction is the initiation of a tiered environmental impact review. In 2003, the project was designated as Congressional High Priority Corridor Number 50 and Senator Schumer, then Senator Clinton and then Congressman McHugh secured federal funding in the amount of $6.3 Million to begin that process. In 2004, the project was included as a priority project in the New York State Transportation Master Plan for 2030.

The NY DOT has not acted on the matter in spite of receiving the Federal funding. As recently as December of 2010, however, Mr. Ray LaHood, the United States Secretary of Transportation has indicated a strong willingness to move the project forward if the State of New York further elevates it's prioritization.

Senators Schumer and Gillibrand and Congressman Owens have all pledged to support the project as part of the reauthorization of the Federal Highway Bill. In fact, in 2009, following a joint request by Senators Aubertine, Griffo and Little and Assembly Members Russell, Scozzafava and Duprey; Senators Schumer and Gillibrand requested $150,000,000 when the bill was being discussed at that time. New rules in the House of Representatives will make it possible to match that funding request in that

Construction of the Interstate 98 corridor has unprecedented local, regional and statewide support. In June of last year, the New York State Assembly passed a unanimous resolution in support of the Interstate 98 project. The New York State Association of Counties and the New York State Agri-business Development Board have also passed unanimous resolutions.

In total, 500 counties, municipalities, school districts, fire districts, special taxing jurisdictions, civic organizations, agriculture agencies, fraternal organizations, labor unions, the Fort Drum Regional Liaison Organization, religious organizations, church parishes, economic development agencies and Chambers of Commerce from the seven north country counties have passed resolutions calling for the construction of Interstate 98. That level of support is as near a level of consensus as any project in the history of upstate New York. In addition to these remarks, I offer to the panel copies of these resolutions.

As a further testament to the local support, the Northern Corridor Transportation Group has raised more than $107,000 in less than one year to fund a public education campaign designed to keep residents of the North Country up to date on the project. The most distressed region of the state has generated substantial funding at a time when financial resources are scarcer than they have been for decades.

Development of the corridor will enable a platform through which our young people won't have to leave home in search of challenging and rewarding work. Development of the corridor will help return hundreds of thousands of acres of fallow farm land to productive use.

Development of the corridor will foster trail-based tourism on a scale unseen in New York state by connecting the extensive trail networks in Vermont to those in the Tug Hill and Finger Lakes regions. Development of the corridor will create broadband redundancy across the northern border and allow for the faster commercialization of research coming out of academic institutions like Clarkson and St. Lawrence universities.

Economic development agencies in the North Country, including the Business Development Corporation for a Greater Massena, lose hundreds of companies per year, in spite of being on the door step of three and a half million people because the region lacks critical transportation infrastructure. Development of the Interstate 98 corridor will reverse that.

There is no other transportation project in New York State that will serve to create as many jobs and long-term economic opportunities as the Interstate 98 project. When evaluated in aggregate, the Interstate 98 project will help accomplish the goals outlined by Governor Cuomo in his State of the State address. There simply are no more tomorrow's; the time to move forward is now.

In closing, I ask for your assistance today in two ways.

First, I ask that the state prioritize the Interstate 98 project as one of the five transportation priorities for New York.

Second, I ask that the state direct the NYS DOT to release the $6.3 Million it has held since 2003, eight years, and cooperate with officials from the Federal Highway Administration in initiating the tiered environmental impact review that is required to move the project forward.

I grew up in the north country in the thriving super-metropolis of Norfolk; population 3,400. I was away for 15 years, and I've now been back for four. I'm proud of the Empire State and I'm proud of Norfolk.

I'm happy to be home, and I hope to make it easier for others from my generation to do the same. I thank you for your time and attention.