WINDSOR, Ont. – Windsor transportation and trucking interests had a mixed reaction to the five improvements to start the easing of Windsor border traffic announced last month by federal, provincial and municipal governments.

“It’s a good start, that’s probably the best three word answer,” said Steve Ondejko, president of Windsor-area Onfreight Logistics and the Windsor Transportation Club. “As for improving the ability to move trucks across the border, not a lot there.”

The trucking community wants to see more progress on the rest of a set of proposals, including a new eastside connection along Lauzon Parkway between Hwy. 401 and the city’s EC Row Expressway extension, he said. The extension was backed at a February news conference in Windsor by a consortium of industry groups, as a way of expediting truck traffic towards various future proposed border crossings, whether they be a new tunnel under the Detroit River, an expanded Ambassador Bridge or a new bridge crossing west of the Ambassador Bridge. Windsor City Council, which formerly opposed the extension, has now given itself a loophole by agreeing to continue discussions on additional projects including “consideration of” improvements along EC Row and Lauzon.

Ondejko said a new underpass at the often-chocked Walker Rd. / Grand Marais Rd. intersection in the heart of industrial Windsor is “good” but “not really doing anything for border crossing traffic” though it does help expedite shipping in and out of the adjacent DaimlerChrysler plant.