FARMINGTON — A top executive for a construction company proposing a 220-mile east-west highway across Maine says the road is inevitable.

Darryl Brown, project manager of Pittsfield-based Cianbro Corp., said it may take another 10 years, but he told the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce business breakfast Tuesday at the University of Maine at Farmington that it’s “going to happen.”

Supporters say a privately built, toll-funded $2.1 billion highway from Calais to Coburn Gore would allow the transportation of shipping containers from Eastport to Canada and the Midwest. They say it would be a huge boost to the state economy.

Some environmental groups are opposed to the idea.

The Sun Journal reports that Brown says the highway would be open to all modes of travel, not just trucks.