By Leo Ryan, AJOT Jan Beringer, President and CEO of Calgary-based project forwarding specialist Rohde & Liesenfeld Canada, reports rising activity in the oil sands and general mining sectors as well as in engineering procurement and construction (EPC)-related freight budgeting. In his view, the increase in freight budgeting requests reflects new planned investments by project owners. But he also holds out some red flags on another matter. Beringer has been particularly dismayed over huge delays for two projects in western Canada caused by legal battles in Idaho resulting in oversized loads halted on highway routes for several months now. Protests by environmental groups sparked the conflict. “Blocked from getting road permits approved are modules for the oil sands region and large vessels for a pulp and paper mill expansion and modernization project in northern Alberta,” Beringer indicated. The modules arrived from Korea at the Port of Vancouver, Washington State, and then traveled by barge on the Colombia River to Lewiston, Idaho where they were loaded onto trucks for the journey to Fort McMurray. Some three dozen loads, each weighing up to 250 tons, were still stuck at Lewiston in late October, pending a court decision. Beringer contends that “the environmental impact over Highway 12 is, in reality, non-existent.” He points out that the Columbia River offers a cost effective and ‘green’ method of bringing project cargoes into the northwest regions of the United States and Canada – involving oil and gas projects, pulp and paper projects, and wind energy projects, among others. “It can only be hoped that economic interests will prevail and not special interest groups and attorneys looking to enrich their own pockets and their own interests under the guise of being environmentalists.” According to Beringer, the transportation industry as a whole should be interested in what he calls “freight shifting” in order to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions. When project cargoes are shifted from truck to rail, from ship to barge or are brought closer to final destination by a) using the St. Lawrence Seaway to reach the farthest inland port of Thunder Bay or b) using the Colombia/Snake River to reach Lewiston from the West Coast, Beringer affirms that “significant reductions in emissions are achieved – as opposed to trucking or railing that cargo from Houston.” Meanwhile, officials at Manitoba’s Port of Churchill and the Hudson Bay Railway (owned by Denver-based Omnitrax) in northern Manitoba are seeking to convince Imperial Oil to use their alternative route to reach the Alberta oil sands for the mega-loads delayed in Idaho and Montana. Such a route would avert the United States altogether. Most observers, however, do not see this as an easy sell. While a shorter overland route (about 240 miles) can compensate for the longer ocean route, trucking company executives in Manitoba acknowledge it is far from evident that the highways across northern Saskatchewan and Alberta would be able to accommodate the massive loads. And the sub-Arctic Port of Churchill is only open between July and November.