BUFFALO, N.Y. — While it says that one bridge is enough for the Windsor-Detroit border, the Ambassador Bridge Company is forging ahead with a proposal to construct a second crossing at Ontario’s next busiest border gateway.

According to the Associated Press, the owners of the private Ambassador Bridge in Detroit have filed paperwork with the U.S. State Department seeking permission to build and operate a bridge across the Niagara River at Buffalo, under the name Ambassador Niagara Signature Bridge.

The $300 million, four-lane bridge would be just under two miles north of the existing Peace Bridge. The Ambassador’s plan is to handle all the commercial traffic, while the Peace Bridge would process passenger vehicles only.

The Ambassador company insists a new bridge would
be a feasible alternative to Peace Bridge expansion.

The Buffalo and Fort Erie Peace Bridge Authority says the private company is trying to undermine its own plans for Peace Bridge expansion. However, Peace Bridge general manager Ron Rienas told AP he’s happy the permit application has been filed so it “can finally receive some scrutiny… So far there hasn’t been any of that.”

The State Department will accept written comments on the Ambassador group’s permit application until April 28.

The Ambassador group’s regional director, James Kane, said a new bridge represents a “reasonable, feasible alternative” to the Peace Bridge expansion plans, which would uproot the surrounding neighborhood for a larger plaza.

Questions still linger, however, as to whether a second bridge in the region is even legal in Canada. In both 2004 and 2006 Transport Canada cited a law that’s been on the books since 1923 that thwarts any plans of a privately owned secondary international border crossing. Former Liberal Transport Minister Jean-Claude Lapierre confirmed at the time the validity of the Peace Bridge Authority’s exclusive right to operate any new vehicle bridge within 10 km of the existing crossing.

Back in Windsor/Detroit, the Detroit International Bridge Co. has been bitterly opposed to ongoing government plans to build a separate crossing about 3 km southwest of the Ambassador Bridge.

The company is in the process of constructing its own six-lane twin span next to the current bridge. It claims the new structure would handle all the gateway’s capacity for decades to come.