DETROIT, (Aug 5, 2004) — The owners of the Ambassador Bridge have filed permit applications for a second span linking North America’s busiest border crossing.

The Detroit International Bridge Co. — owned by Grosse Pointe industrialist Manuel Moroun — wants U.S. and Canadian authorities to approve a new $395 million span running parallel to the Ambassador Bridge, which was first built in 1929. If approved, it is expected to take at least five years to complete.

The petitions were filed with the U.S. Coast Guard, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, Ontario Ministry of Environment and Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency.

Earlier this year, the binational Canada-U.S.-Ontario-Michigan Border Transportation Partnership released a study which predicted Canada and the U.S. would lose up to $28.6 billion US annually by 2030 if an alternate river crossing isn’t added to ease the congestion on either side of the Ambassador Bridge and its sister Blue Water Bridge in Sarnia, Ont. and Port Huron, Mich.

The Detroit-Windsor crossings account for about a quarter of the $400 billion ($526 billion) in goods that travel each year between the U.S. and Canada. Each year, 3.25 million trucks cross the bridge. Annual commercial traffic between the two crossings has doubled over the last decade, and is expected to triple within the next 20 years.

However, there are other options being touted. The Detroit River Tunnel Partnership is proposing a $600 million US conversion of twin railway tunnels into a “commercial truck only” corridor beneath the Detroit River. Another is plan is to increase $14 million in passenger and truck ferry services between Windsor and Detroit. A third group, Mich-Can, wants to build a bridge near Zug Island on Detroit’s south side.

— with files from Associated Press