TORONTO — The exact location for a new international crossing in the Windsor-Detroit Gateway still hasn’t been declared, but the picture is clearer today after a recommendation by the Detroit River International Crossing (DRIC) study team for a new access route leading to a secondary bridge in Windsor.

The Canada-U.S. group charged with picking a location for a new border crossing is urging that “a below grade parkway” route be built from Howard Avenue to E.C. Row Expressway.

The lane would consist of a number of short tunnels, which will facilitate the creation of trails for pedestrians, cyclists and wildlife.

This would be the main link to a new bridge whose exact location reportedly will be announced by DRIC later this fall. It’s expected that the proposed site will be about 3 km southwest of the Ambassador, between the industrial area near Ojibway in Windsor and the community of Delray in Michigan.

The route gives transport trucks another option for reaching the border from Highway 401, which ends about 12 km away from the Detroit River. Currently, trucks have little choice other then to spill onto congested Huron Church Rd. en route to the current Ambassador Bridge.

Ontario Trucking Association President David Bradley welcomed the announcement.

The Ambassador is proceeding with a twin span. When done,
will a separate bridge downriver still have momentum?

“While this is just one small step forward in a long and complex process, today’s announcement does give me some hope that at the end of the day the DRIC process will find a solution to the Windsor-Detroit border crossing problem that addresses the concerns of the local community as well as meeting the needs of the manufacturers and exporters on both sides of the border and the trucks that carry their goods.

“The communities on both sides of the Detroit River in south-western Ontario and south-eastern Michigan are really one economic community built on an integrated manufacturing process that takes advantage of the strengths of both sides of the border,” he continued. “But the economic success of this region is dependant on ensuring that the border remains a political dividing line, not an economic one. It is dependant on the border operating smoothly and efficiently.”

It’s debatable, though, whether a new bridge crossing will ever get built. The privately-owned Ambassador Bridge is forging ahead with its own plans to twin its crossing with a new state-of-the-art, six-lane span. The company has already begun expanding its toll and Customs plazas for the parallel bridge in both countries.

While the new DRIC crossing is backed by Windsor City Council; the main trucking associations in Canada and the U.S.; and, recently, a coalition of large automakers, there is continued resistance from some high-profile politicians at the Michigan state level, who, like the Ambassador Bridge, argue that it’s a waste of taxpayer money to build a public bridge when the bridge company is already in the process of its second span.

According to the Ambassador folks, traffic volumes have been steadily falling since 9-11 and the region can’t support two brand-new bridges plus the current Ambassador, which the company claims will be kept for extra capacity when needed — although that remains to be seen.

Clearly, OTA and other groups still see a need for separate redundancy. In fact, Bradley is calling on officials to expedite the process.

“While today’s announcement about the access route is an important step forward, it is vital that the DRIC study team and politicians on both sides of the border get on with the job of deciding on where to locate the bridge and plaza, and to begin construction as soon as possible. The best case is that a new crossing won’t be ready until 2013, but to make that target we will need continued vision, commitment, and political will on both sides of the border.”

“…with the end of the year now just over the horizon, the clock is ticking. Let’s hope this is one deadline our governments will meet. We’ll be watching with anticipation.”