MONCTON. N.B. — Pave it and they will come.

That’s what American businessman Peter Vigue thinks about a proposed new super shortcut across Maine that he says would save a lot of time for truckers going from the Maritimes to the rest of North America.

His idea, he told a Moncton luncheon hosted by the Atlantic Provinces Trucking Association (APTA) and the Transportation Club of Moncton, is a must if industry is going to make the most of the container-shipping “surge” expected at the East Coast ports of Halifax and Melford, which is in the Canso Strait.

According to the Halifax Chronicle Herald, Vigue envisions a highway linking the New-Brunswick-Maine border and southeastern Quebec, and he’s hoping the billion-dollar route could be in place by 2014.

One of the only problems he foresees is that trucks traveling from, say, Halifax to Montreal, would have to clear customs twice, once leaving New Brunswick and again when re-entering Canada.

Vigue, an engineering and construction contractor, thinks the Maritime ports of Canada are well positioned to accommodate huge freight shipments to North America in the coming years. Existing west coast ports and southern U.S. ports are congested and Vigue and many other industry experts predict a phenomenal growth in inter-modal activity by as soon as 2015.

The highway, if built, would be privately funded, he said. Also, infrastructure investment firms have asked for more information about the project and its timetable.

Atlantic Canada’s truckers are enthusiastic about the idea of reducing traveling times to Central Canada and beyond but say there are challenges to be overcome, mostly involving border crossings. According to Vaughn Sturgeon, the President and CEO of The Warren Group, the highway idea is “very logical.”