Most “official” folks say there’s no simple way to more efficiently funnel some 6,000 trucks a day across the Ambassador Bridge. But given the delays all those drivers and their loads face before they cross, something must be done to fix this important gateway. Fully 25 per cent of our trade with the United States takes that route connecting Windsor, Ont., and Detroit. Eight per cent of Canada’s gross domestic product.

Of course, there are ideas. Politicians, bureaucrats, and even a few business people have talked for years about alternate bridges, tunnels, and roads. The American company that owns the Ambassador Bridge-a company controlled by one guy, not a government, I urge you to note-counters by saying the logjams aren’t due to the span’s capacity but to slow customs and immigration checks.

If you believe a solution to this mess is years away, I beg to differ. So does a feisty young woman, a former Canada Customs and Revenue Agency officer named Ann Arquette. Her company, Border Gateways, has a plan to reduce delays that could be up and running within 10 months. Arquette wants to create a staging area-“a virtual gateway,” she calls it-off the 401 about 20 kilometres east of Windsor, where all trucks would stop and prepare to clear customs. Sounds simplistic, but consider this: 35 per cent of the vehicles heading to the United States through Windsor every day arrive at the border with incomplete paperwork.

Sort out these problems in advance and you’ll make a moot point out of the fact that the secondary inspection station at the bridge can handle only 87 trucks at a time.

At Arquette’s facility, trucks would be staged and released in an ordered way so as to eliminate the present chaos on Windsor streets. Security along the 20-km trip to the actual border would be managed by video cameras and radio-frequency devices that would sound an alarm if a truck went off-route.

Arquette’s facility also would be designed to accommodate drivers. Instead of having to use one of the 15 portable johns the province of Ontario has spread out along that last bit of Hwy. 401, drivers could have proper washrooms and showers. In fact, it would make sense to combine Arquette’s staging area with a proper truck stop, a point not lost on her.
Arquette has options on 150 acres of land and she’s got her site designed. Financing is in place and the area’s best contractor is ready to pave 50 acres or more. Her small team is good to go.

All she needs is a nod from the provincial and federal governments, but so far they’re not listening. Nor, it seems, is the trucking industry. Only the folks at the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection seem to be responding. The Yanks actually think her idea might work at the U.S./Mexico border crossing in El Paso, Texas.

So why not in Windsor? After all, no matter which of the big-money bridge or tunnel proposals is ultimately adopted there, Arquette’s idea would make any of them-including the Ambassador Bridge in its present form-work better.

Arquette isn’t the only David trying to slay the Goliath problem of Windsor border delays. Gregg Ward runs the Detroit-Windsor Truck Ferry, a tug-pulled barge with capacity for eight tractor-trailers and a few vans.

I was astonished by the speed and, well, the peace of it compared to the noisy lineup of trucks and trailers approaching the bridge. Simply put, this 20-minute jaunt along the Detroit River was a pleasant ride. Efficient, too: One driver I talked to said it generally takes him 35 minutes to cross and clear the border when he uses the barge.

The service was launched in 1990 to ferry hazmat loads across the river (they’re not allowed on the Ambassador Bridge and otherwise must be hauled 250-plus kilometers north to the Blue Water Bridge crossing). Ward is allowed to run one barge for 10 hours a day, giving him a daily capacity of 35 to 50 trucks during that time. But he could take 400 a day should the need arise. He wants a 24/7 operation with two ferries, but the CCRA says no. Hell, he can’t even convince the Ontario Ministry of Transportation to put a sign along the 401 directing people his way. Ward’s ferry isn’t for everyone, but it’s a good solution for some.

I’ll explore these two potential solutions to the Windsor problem more fully in coming issues. If only the politicians and bureaucrats would do the same.