WINDSOR — Officials at the Ambassador Bridge say the company would be happy to pick up part of the tab for a new highway leading to the border in Windsor — provided it leads to their bridge and not a new crossing proposed a few kilometers downriver.

According to the Windsor Star, the bridge company is open to paying for some of the costs of a new commercial highway if authorities agree to extend it to the current bridge.

Last month, the binational Detroit River International Crossing (DRIC) study team — which is proposing a separate bridge be built between southwest Windsor and the suburb on Delray in Michigan — said a new six-kilometer artery should be built from Talbot Road to E.C. Row Expressway and left to Ojibway Parkway near the likely site of the new bridge.

The route, which is intended to bypass much of congested Huron Church Rd. from Hwy. 401, would consist of a number of short tunnels. DRIC suggests “a below grade parkway” route should be built from Howard Avenue to E.C. Row.

But in an editorial board meeting with the Star, Ambassador President Dan Stamper said government should save its money and simply finish the expressway down to his bridge, which the company is about to start twinning with a new six-lane span.

According to the Star, Stamper was short on specifics how a partnership would be accomplished, but said he’d already offered suggestions to Transport Canada.

The public should not link the bridge’s twinning proposal with the problems of international truck traffic cutting through Windsor en route to the Ambassador Bridge, Stamper told the paper.

— with files from the Windsor Star