WINDSOR — Two thousand and eight is the year the Ambassador Bridge begins construction of its much-hyped twin span, the company’s president promises.

According to the Windsor Star, bridge president Dan Stamper says the company will begin construction on its new bridge in the fall. He expects the project will take about two and a half years to complete.

Stamper told the paper that he expects to get the necessary approvals from various governments to begin construction. However, he lamented what he describes as the City of Windsor’s plan to delay the project.

The Ambassador has begun expanding the plaza approach
to a second bridge, but is still waiting for approval to build it.

Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis doesn’t share Stamper’s optimism. He told the Star that the company has a long way to go before a twin span can be built. “They can talk all they want, but they still need approvals from the city for their project before beginning,” he said.

In an interview with Today’s Trucking last year, Stamper called City Council and bureaucrats involved in the competing Detroit River International Crossing study (DRIC), his greatest adversaries.

The (city) is simply behaving in bad faith,” he said.

DRIC is a binational group of government officials charged with selecting the site of a separate, publicly owned (but probably privately operated) bridge 3km southwest of the Ambassador, near the Ojibway Parkway industrial area.
Stamper told TT that at the heart of DRIC’s and the city’s opposition to a twin Ambassador span is “anti-American ownership from a Canadian perspective.”

According to the Star, Stamper also dismissed allegations by the city that it had been shut out of the environmental assessment process for the twin span.

The two sides met in November, but city officials balked because it was a verbal presentation. The bridge counters that it did not supply written plans because the city refused to keep the documents confidential.