WINDSOR, Ont. — The Canadian arm of an influential environmental advocacy group has cast its lot with a Detroit trucking company mogul and owner of the Ambassador Bridge.

They might appear to make for strange bedfellows, but according to The Windsor Star, the Sierra Club and the Ambassador Bridge Co. have applied for a judicial review of the Detroit River International Crossing’s (DRIC) plan to build a new bridge spanning Windsor and Detroit.

The request, which challenges DRIC’s assessment that there are no significant environmental impacts to building a new bridge and a 10 km truck bypass road in southwest Windsor — were filed in court on New Year’s Eve and seek an interim injunction blocking any construction related to the project.

The bridge company, which at the same time is competing to build its own twin span of the existing Ambassador, argues that DRIC’s environmental assessment was flawed.

The filing alleges that DRIC failed under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act to protect species and habitat along the shore of the Ojibway area where construction on the Canadian side is planned and where preparatory work is underway.

"For the life of me, I can’t see why this project is attractive for government to fund. We need to move away from (vehicles) as a means to get around," Toronto-based Sierra Club Dan McDermott told The Star.

Mark Butler, spokesman for Transport Canada doesn’t appear to be concerned. He ‘s "confident that the federal environmental assessment for the DRIC project has been properly carried out and complies with the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act requirements."

Meanwhile, DRIC could be facing another roadblock on the other side of the Detroit River.

As reported last week, Ambassador Bridge owner Matty Moroun purchased a swath of land in southwest Detroit from YRC for his own Central Transport fleet.

Part of the land, though, overlaps where DRIC had planned to build the footprint of the U.S. portion of the bridge — perhaps setting up a separate legal sparring match in American court.