WINDSOR, Ont. — The government affairs director for the Detroit River Tunnel Partnership is reassuring supporters that the group has not given up on its plan to convert an existing rail tunnel across the Detroit River into a truck corridor.

Even though the governmental Binational Study group recently eliminated the DRTP’s Jobs Tunnel project from its quest to create a new border crossing between Detroit and Windsor, Ont., Marge Byington confirmed her team will now will work independently to pursue its original goal of expanding the corridor to handle larger volumes of rail as well as truck freight. “We have many options, including some new ones,” she wrote in a group letter to stakeholders.

The plan to build a new rail-truck tunnel across
the Detroit River isn’t over yet, proponents say

“By resuming our original status as an existing transportation corridor that is not bound by Binational Study procedures or timetables, we have gained freedom and flexibility to develop the privately financed project without waiting more than a year and a half for the next formal review step,” she states.

As TodaysTrucking.com detailed in a special online report earlier this month (follow “Related Stories” link below), the Binational Border Transportation Partnership in charge of selecting the new crossing scrapped two of the three leading proposals — the Jobs Tunnel and the Ambassador Bridge’s plan to twin the existing span.

Instead, the BTP decided to concentrate “future study of a new border crossing and inspection plazas to the industrial area of West Windsor.” That effectively leaves a plan to construct a new bridge likely near Broadway Boulevard on the Canadian side, and a corresponding area on the U.S. side extending upriver to just south of the Ambassador Bridge.

Byington told TodaysTrucking.com at the time that she wasn’t surprised her group’s proposal would be eliminated after being told by “inside sources” that the selection process had been hijacked by special interests. She said she looks forward to pressing on with out “being hamstrung by political pressures shaping the BTP process. ”

“So we look forward with fresh optimism, ready to proceed with engineering plans and prepare for environmental assessments. Our team remains determined to help Michigan and Ontario prosper, gain a competitive edge and add jobs by replacing border congestion as soon as possible with a safe, reliable Jobs Tunnel corridor gateway,” she wrote in the letter.

She also called on Michigan legislators to examine whether the state’s investments in the Binational Study are worthwhile and in taxpayers’ best interests. “This process cries out for an independent review in Lansing before more time and money are spent,” she concluded.