May 24, 2007

Border Crossing

Gateway bridge to spur new highway building

PETER KENTER

correspondent

The Windsor-Detroit corridor has become a victim of its own success, congested by thousands of vehicles backed up on both sides of the border.

The privately-owned Ambassador Bridge bears most of the commercial traffic while passenger traffic favours the tunnel.

The U.S. Federal Highway Administration, Transport Canada, Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO) and the Michigan Department of Transportation — acting as the Canada-U.S.-Ontario-Michigan Border Transportation Partnership — are proceeding with plans for a second bridge to be located down-river from the Ambassador.

Construction plans for the Canadian side of the bridge include a seven-kilometre, six-lane access highway, connecting the 401 to the future bridge site, currently known as the Detroit River International Crossing (DRIC).

“We are currently looking at three bridge sites, all of which are in the west end of Windsor in a largely industrial area,” says Mark Butler, spokesperson for Transport Canada.

“We haven’t determined the exact location of the new crossing, but we’ll have a decision in June or July of this year.”

Butler says the new, signal-free road will largely follow the existing Huron Church Road from Highway 401 for about four kilometres, then veer west to connect with the DRIC plaza.

"We are currently looking at three bridge sites."

Mark Butler

Transport Canada

“When the environmental assessment goes into final approval we anticipate construction will start in 2010 and that the current infrastructure — roadway and bridge — will be completed by 2015,” says Butler. “I would suggest that’s quite an aggressive schedule.”

The road could be built according to any of three plans, or a mix of all three, including a continuous grade access road, budgeted at $620 million to $920 million; a depressed roadway budgeted at between one billion and $1.4 billion dollars, or a tunnel, budgeted at up to $3.8 billion.

The budget doesn’t include costs associated with building the bridge or the new plaza. The budget also omits land acquisition costs; road construction could displace between 125 and 210 households and 25 to 45 businesses.

“Our minister, Lawrence Cannon, announced at a keynote speech a month or so ago that the Government of Canada is looking at P3 financing as one option for construction of the new bridge and inspection plaza,” says Butler. “But the road leading to the bridge is an Ontario responsibility. At this time, we have not determined the method of financing for the access road.”

The governments of Canada, Ontario and Windsor had already committed $300 million to infrastructure upgrades, including improvements to the 401 and Huron Church Road to help ease traffic congestion leading to the Ambassador Bridge.

“We’ve been trying to get the 401 connected to the foot of our establishment for 40 years,” says Skip McMahon, executive director of External Affairs and Community Affairs for the Canadian Transit Company, an arm of the company that operates the Ambassador.

An application made by the company to expand or twin the Ambassador is currently under consideration by Transport Canada.

“Ernie Eves (former Ontario premier) and Jean Chretien (former Prime Minister) made it clear in a memorandum of understanding that the $300 million was to be used to connect the 401 to the bridge,” says McMahon.

“We hope that this money isn’t caught up in the DRIC process.”

But MTO says it has no plans to provide a direct connection to the Ambassador.

“The section between the expressway and the Ambassador Bridge will remain much as it is today but under the city’s control,” says Dave Wake, manager of the planning office for the Windsor Border Initiative Group, MTO.

“We’re providing access to the local road network, including that section, and people can make a choice between the two bridges.”

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