July 27, 2006

Infrastructure

New link between Windsor, Detroit

Six-lane, twin-span bridge will be suspended entirely above the river

PETER KENTER

correspondent

TORONTO

The Detroit International Bridge Company (DIBC), owners of the Ambassador Bridge linking Windsor and Detroit, has filed papers indicating it is ready to begin construction on a six-lane twin-span bridge.

A Department of Environmental Quality notice filed on July 13 with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and obtained by todaystrucking.com describes the new structure as a cable-stayed toll bridge, 102.5 feet wide and 6,200 feet long. A tower on the U.S. side would be located 105 feet north of the Detroit River, while a tower on the Canadian side would be located 171 feet south. The bridge would rise 152 feet above the “ordinary high water mark.”

The new bridge would be located west of the existing 87 year old Ambassador Bridge, but connect with the existing plazas on both sides of the border. The notice, prepared by American Consulting Engineers LLC on behalf of the DIBC, indicates that the bridge will be suspended entirely above the river, stating: “There will be no dredging, structures or piers within the Detroit River.”

The notice also speculates on the fate of the original span: “The existing Ambassador Bridge will be closed for evaluation and repair, if found economically viable for future use.”

“We have initiated the process that will allow us to build this bridge,” says Skip McMahon, executive director of External Affairs and Community Affairs for the Canadian Transit Company, the Canadian arm of the private company that operates the Ambassador.

“All the applications are in and we’re moving forward.”

The Windsor-Detroit crossing infrastructure, which includes the Windsor-Detroit tunnel, has come under increased traffic pressure in recent years, though some critics blame delays on a shortage of customs officials.

The Border Transportation Partnership, a bi-national committee of Canadian and U.S. government officials that includes the Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO), Transport Canada, the U.S. Federal Highway Administration and the Michigan Department of Transportation, is investigating plans under the Detroit River International Crossing (DRIC) Project to build an entirely new bridge that might be located about three kilometres southwest of the Ambassador.

If the Ambassador project is completed in a timely fashion, it could pre-empt the construction of a competing public bridge. In the Ambassador plan’s favour: prior U.S. federal legislation exempts it from requiring a Presidential permit issued by the U.S. Department of State.

The Department of State, in turn, doesn’t appear to favour the DRIC plan for a second centrally-located bridge, which it says would be subject to the same problems that might affect traffic flow at the Ambassador.

The members of the DRIC project, however, remain undaunted by the announcement.

“The Ambassador Bridge is free to do as it likes,” says Bob Nichols, spokesperson for the MTO, noting that the DRIC had already ruled out the Ambassador site for a second bridge.

“Our position remains unchanged and we’re on schedule.”

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