FREDERICTON – An Atlantic think tank has undertaken a comprehensive study into the transportation and economic conditions across Canada and the US’ most eastern provinces and states.

The study — launched by the Atlantic Institute of Market Studies and titled Northeast CanAm Connections: Integrating the Economy and Transportation — will examine the potential for a major trade corridor extending from the Port of Halifax through New Brunswick and Maine to Ontario, Quebec, and New England markets, reports the Moncton Times & Transcript.

The study will encompass all modes of transportation within the region extending from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic seaboard.

“This is a major forward step for (the) Atlantica concept,” says Brian Lee Crowley, president of the in a news release. “At the end of the process we will have a study of the existing infrastructure and the needs of the international northeast economic region.”

The Maine Department of Transportation will lead the study, the newspaper reports, while additional funding comes from the U.S. National Corridor Planning and Development Program and Coordinated Border Infrastructure Program.

The contract will likely be awarded this upcoming February with a start date expected sometime in March.

— from the Moncton Times & Transcript