As published in the March 1, 2007 Toledo Business Journal
Thomas Kovacik
Transportation Advocacy Group of Northwest Ohio,
executive director
Intermodal hub to spur
$100M+ investment
Dorr Street interchange off I-475
to be announced
Toledo Business Journal: Who are the members of TAGNO? Can you discuss the organization’s mission?
Thomas Kovacik: TAGNO is the Transportation Advocacy Group of Northwest Ohio. We are primarily a Lucas and Wood County organization. But, we are working with surrounding counties as well.
The membership of TAGNO is kind of unique. It isn’t just the big highway construction companies. It also includes anyone interested in transportation, such as engineering firms, banks, universities, smaller companies, and bigger companies. Everybody sees the need to have improved transportation. This year’s chairman is Mike Ryan, Hanson Aggregates.
TAGNO’s mission is to improve the infrastructure and to address transportation issues in northwest Ohio – the roads, the bridges, the seaway, and everything to deal with transportation, not just the typical asphalt and concrete roads.
Since 2000, I have been working with all the stakeholders who deal in transportation. The main ones are TMACOG, the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority, The Trucking Association, the Ohio Contractors Association, Lucas County, and the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT). Subsequent and recent partners include the Regional Growth Partnership (RGP), the Chamber of Commerce, Lucas County Improvement Corporation (LCIC), the Associated General Contractors (AGC), the Home Builders Association (HBA), the City of Toledo, and NORED.
In 1999 we had a vision to make Toledo / northwest Ohio the intermodal capital of the country – the new Chicago.
In 1999, we knew our vision would take five to six years. We knew we needed to have the University of Toledo (UT) get heavily involved. So we got together and decided to create an Intermodal Institute at UT. We got some money together and did some feasibility studies. Dan Johnson, UT president emeritus, came on board, and one of his keen interests is transportation. It’s like the stars were aligning for us.
To make a long story short, that’s why the Intermodal Institute is at UT today. Because TAGNO, the Port Authority, TMACOG, and others came up with an idea and pushed the issue. The reason for that institute is to expand the University’s concept for transportation, to get away from asphalt versus concrete, and to look at creating an intermodal distribution hub around Toledo.
TBJ: Can you share current and future priorities of TAGNO?
TK: The new intermodal site in Toledo is so critical. China will expand its economic influence during the next five years. Everything that comes to this part of the country traditionally by ship goes to San Diego or Los Angeles then to Chicago then to the east coast. San Diego and Los Angeles will not be able to handle any more goods coming from China, and Chicago is already saturated.
A major new distribution alternative is being built. There’s a new Prince Rupert Port in western Canada that will use the Canadian National (CN) railroad to allow goods to move from the Far East across Canada and then to Michigan and Ohio and points beyond. That’s why the Luna Pier intermodal project was envisioned. Once goods would arrive at the proposed Luna Pier intermodal site, everything then has to go through Toledo.
Luna Pier had a major faux pas with this intermodal project. As a result, we’re looking at improving Lang Yard, right on the Ohio state line. When cargo does eventually come down through Michigan, we’re going to have a distribution center at Lang Yard ready for it.
There’s also going to be another port in Mexico, the Port of Lazaro Cardenas. Goods will come up through Texas and Kansas to Toledo and we’re going to be hit in a double direction. It would unload before Lang Yard. Five to ten years down the road, Toledo will be the new Chicago because of its location.
Since we helped create the Intermodal Institute at the University of Toledo, our next basic mission is to create this intermodal transportation hub in Toledo and northwest Ohio. There are strategic, logistic, and political issues to work through, so that is what we are working with right now.
TBJ: Which aspects of the intermodal hub may be moving forward soon? Are there any hurdles or obstacles that will keep it from moving forward?
TK: I don’t think the Luna Pier boondoggle is going to detract from the mission, and it’s not going to cancel out our opportunities, because the proposed Luna Pier site will just be moved somewhere else close to where it is now. I think the Prince Rupert Port in Canada will be finished before the end of this year. If we aren’t ready to help distribute some of these goods, they are just going to come right through Toledo and down through Ohio. And we can’t afford to have that happen.
We have to be in a position, before the end of this year, to have some development at Lang Yard and to have the Luna Pier substitute site up and running. We also have to get our politicians to look at Toledo Express Airport as what it is – a transportation and distribution hub.
The airport won’t be ready by the end of the year, but we can surely have the Luna Pier substitute site ready, and that is the main focus. We have to be ready to develop something to offload the cargo and goods to distribute them out of Toledo. Distribution facilities, trucking firms, and logistics companies will grow and it will feed itself.
We jumped on Lang Yard to protect Toledo as a backup to Luna Pier. The most important issue is the Luna Pier substitute site, and that is where the big money is going to be. The substitute site will likely be in the same proximity to Toledo as the Luna Pier site – 20 miles one way or the other – and hundreds of millions of dollars will be poured into this site.
There will be state assistance, but the vast majority will be privately funded. The warehousing, distribution, and logistics will move on their own. Instead of Toledo being a pass through city, we want it to be a destination for the cargo whether it is distributed by rail, plane, or ship.
Our future is transportation and logistics. What TAGNO is trying to do is work behind the scenes to make everyone realize what is coming and to be the glue to hold the public and private sectors together until this thing materializes.
TBJ: What is TAGNO’s position on leasing the Ohio Turnpike to obtain funding for Ohio infrastructure and economic development?
TK: That is a work in progress. I think it boils down to common sense. Indiana did it, Pennsylvania is going to do it, and here we are right in the middle. It’s only logical to assume that it’s going to happen. If Ohio can get six or seven billion dollars, the State can make a hundred million dollars in interest each year.
The counties along the turnpike should benefit most and get more money faster, just like in Indiana where counties adjacent to the turnpike are currently sucking business from the western part of Ohio. Every county bordering the turnpike could compete with Indiana and build distribution centers and warehouses. Not to do it would be detrimental.
TBJ: Are there any other issues you would like to address?
TK: Right now we’re planning projects with TMACOG for the year 2035. So, this is something that we do constantly.
First, TAGNO is adamant that Route 24 – which Ohio administration is thinking of eliminating – stays on schedule.
Additionally, some of the big projects in the area include the improvements of I-75 and I-475. We’re working on putting a new ramp into the new ProMedica hospital, fixing the Jeep split, and adding two new lanes on I-475 all the way down to the river. Of no lesser importance is the consideration that needs to be given to major arteries along the system, like Cherry Street. The local community is extremely important.
I’ve often seen cars lined up on the expressway at Central Avenue and Airport Highway. So, I argued that we need another interchange between those two [exits]. I went to every I-475 / I-75 steering committee meeting over the last three years, and I brought up the same idea that an interchange should be built near Dorr Street.
Finally, after three years of constant pushing, they are going to build a new interchange near Dorr Street. Of course it would be a direct feed to Inverness Club, the University of Toledo, and downtown Toledo. I’m looking at it with a safety perspective as a new route to help Toledo distribution-wise.
So, after widening I-475, there will be an interchange near Dorr Street. This should be announced soon.