NB Gateway freeway expansion cancelled despite signed contract

Comment

Comment by Randy Chatterjee on March 23, 2011 at 1:05pm

There is hope, especially for stopping the "perimeter" roads, like the SFPR, that are IMHO the most blatantly damaging elements of the Gateway program.  

New roads for transporting container traffic--that is better handled on electrified rail lines or short haul barges and that destroys river foreshore and vital bog ecosystems--can never be supported as we transition away from the use of oil and seek to protect salmon runs and the diverse habitat of millions of species--including humans--that our rivers create.

With inflation on the rise in China, Japan suffering from grievous natural and man-made disasters, the impending collapse of the sovereign debt bubble, and oil prices on the rise, it only makes sense to stop where we are and reassess.  

Building roads to nowhere is an all-too-common human ambition, but easily stopped when recognized for the horrid folly that it represents.  More than ever, with climate change and Peak Oil on the horizon, these new highways--whether truly for freight or actually for residential sprawl development--cannot be allowed to be built.

These roads, and the Metro Regional Growth Strategy that is geared to feed them, can and will be stopped.  We have no other choice.  

Let us follow New Brunswick's example.