A Tale of Two Bridges

By Zander Kelly

Business owner Mary-Ann Cuderman who lives on Windsor’s west side, is preparing for the construction of two new bridge spans. The construction will cause major disruptions for a number of years.

Cuderman has been a resident of ward two and owner of the Olde Towne Bake Shoppe since 2002.

“I think it’s atrocious. The city should be aware of what’s going on,” said Cuderman. “They’re responsible for taking care of the city and how do you try to make plans, and do things, without knowing what this corporation is doing in your city?”

A second span of the Ambassador Bridge has been announced and will be constructed right beside the original. This project, backed by the Detroit International Bridge Co, is expected to be completed in 2020.

 

The other bridge project in Windsor is the Gordie Howe International Bridge. This bridge, expected to be completed in 2023 with construction beginning in 2019, will be located on the other border of ward two, splitting off the Herb Gray Parkway and leading directly into Delray, a neighbourhood of Detroit.

The Ambassador bridge has stood between sandwich towne and downtown for almost a hundred years and because Windsor is Canada’s busiest international crossing, the sandwich towne area has been fundamentally shaped by this bridge.

John Elliott is the city councillor for ward two and has lived there since 1974. Elliott is not too worried about the new projects.

“There’s pros and cons to (The Ambassador Bridge). I know people who, because of the trucks and exhaust, say that Huron Line is bad sometimes,” said Elliot. “You get a lot of trucks down there. If we shut down the bridge– all the trade that’s going across the border, what happens then? Until the Gordie Howe bridge comes up, that’s what we have.”

Elliott said that growing up in ward two, the bridge never bothered anybody.

“You hear comments and criticism from outsiders but the bridge never bothered us. It’s always been there. We’ve never had a problem. When the blighted houses happened, that was the real issues. It was a mess for 15 years. Blighted houses in our community. I’ve never lived in a warzone but it looked like one. That was more of the concern,” said Elliott, referring to the 130 houses bought by the Detroit International Bridge Co. that have only recently been demolished after years of slow decay.

Elliott is also making sure to step in only where he feels it is important.

“I don’t try and control what the federal government controls. I just try to let them do their thing and I try to do my job as a councillor,” said Elliott. ”I’ve been in touch with both sides. I know people at the Gordie Howe Bridge and the home security for the Ambassador Bridge. So if I have real concerns I just need to contact them. If something looks out of place to my eyes I’ll make some noise.”

Jordan Tough is a manager at the Dominion House, Windsor’s oldest lasting bar.

“We just went through [construction] with the roundabout nearby. What affects us more is the street repairs on the old bridge. It will affect the downtown business. But overall it shouldn’t affect us too much,” said Tough.

The draw of a landmark establishment means the only drawbacks of extended periods of construction nearby would be longer commute times from the downtown area. Most residents don’t seem to mind the drive, according to Tough.

“One thing that will help us is construction crews,” said Tough. “We get lots of traffic from construction workers. We had plenty of them during the 401 construction.”

Mark Butler is the director of communications for the Windsor Detroit Bridge Authority, the crown company behind the Gordie Howe International Bridge. He said the Gordie Howe International Bridge will be located in an industrial area, away from residential areas and approximately three kilometres west of Sandwich Towne.

“Travellers using the Gordie Howe International Bridge will both exit and access the bridge from the Rt. Hon. Herb Gray Parkway, which will provide a direct highway access to the new crossing,” said Butler.

The bridge will also be obscured from neighbouring businesses by use of “significant landscape buffers” such as trees. The Bridge Authority is committed to connecting with the community during the process of the bridge’s construction, according to Butler.

The Bridge Authority is also working closely with residents of Sandwich Towne to understand their ideas and suggestions related to the Community Benefits Plan, which is a priority for the Bridge Authority as a corporate citizen in the Windsor-Detroit region. The authority also acknowledges there may be some inconvenience to local residents and businesses during the construction stage of the project and will ensure mitigation measures identified during the Detroit River International Crossing study will be implemented.

Some residents are more concerned with the second span of the Ambassador bridge than the Gordie Howe bridge. The announcement of the span’s approval came directly from the Detroit International Bridge Company and took Windsor City Council by surprise. Such is the case with Cuderman.

Cuderman also had concerns about how the government failed to communicate with the city regarding the approval of the bridge span.

“The government sold out the area like so much junk,” said Cuderman. “They didn’t have the gumption to come down here. They had [The DIBC] make the announcement which was a slap in the face. The conditions they put, [Matty Moroun, owner of the Ambassador Bridge] is going to fight them tooth and nail. They’re not putting in any community benefits, unlike the other bridge.”

Cuderman has sat in meetings regarding the Gordie Howe bridge since 2002, up to 90 per cent of them by her account. Cuderman said she finds confidence in the transparency of the Gordie Howe Bridge project.

“I want it to keep moving forward. I think it’s a positive thing and it will take traffic out of the core. Huron Church Road is awful, [trucks] will be off there. The 401 ends at the bridge, so no belching of diesel on Huron Church Road,” said Cuderman.

Cuderman is also concerned about more demolition that may occur around the Ambassador bridge due to insufficient land for car checks and the like.

“In 2004 the Canada border services says you need at least 74 acres, you need to do everything at the foot of the bridge. What he has now, he isn’t able to pull it off,” said Cuderman. “When you look at either side of the Gordie Howe Bridge, they have 100 acres. They’re planning for the future. Just watch.”

Brian Masse is a local NDP MP who has made his criticisms of the Ambassador bridge span well known.

“The ambassador bridge proposal to twin has a lot of intrusion into Sandwich Towne, and I don’t support it and continue to not support it for a couple of reasons,” said Masse. “The most obvious impact is the tearing down of the houses for the plaza. That’s had an infringement onto the community, so we’ve lost homes for people who go to schools there — for the businesses, so we’ve lost the capacity to support the now closed post office or schools like Forester being closed.”

Masse said there is also concern over the Gordie Howe Bridge, but the transparency and accountability created by the Bridge Authority oversight helps to work out any problems the community may have.

Not everyone has a negative view over the Ambassador Bridge. Stanley Korosec works for the Detroit International Bridge Company, the company that owns the Ambassador Bridge, as the director of Canadian government relations and security.

“You’re dealing with governments on both sides of the border and you’re dealing with everything municipal to provincial to state and federal officials. You have to keep up on what’s going on politically, especially around international border crossings,” said Korosec. “We need to protect the structure and the property and working with customs on both sides.”

Korosec also addressed concerns about a lack of transparency with the Detroit International Bridge Company.

“We just went through a two-year process with public comments in the paper, with Transport Canada,” said Korosec. “It was all over the papers, and then they announced the conditions and the approval.”

Korsec explained there were drawings, details on the location of the new plaza, the size of the new plaza and all relevant information on Transport Canada’s website.

“We’re going to be opening up an information centre in Windsor shortly with more detailed drawings and maps of what the bridge will look like,” said Korosec. “We’re still working on it now. As far as the impact of where it’s going to land in Windsor — we’ll have displays up.”

Korosec said the manpower needed to construct the second bridge span will also bring lots of jobs to the area.

“We’ve signed contracts with local contractors for the first phase, which is the new customs plaza for trucks. That’s gonna be a $50 million project on its own. We’ve already got the local contractor and subcontractors working on that.”

At the Gordie Howe Bridge tolls will be collected for both Canada-bound and US-bound traffic on the Canadian side. Toll rates have not been set yet and will be determined once the bridge is operable.

There will be 24 customs booths in Canada and 36 in the US. Customs and Border Protection and Canada Border Services Agency will be responsible for the customs inspection services.

As the crossings will be among the largest in North America, there will be room for onsite inspections, unlike the Ambassador Bridge, which does not have sufficient room at their Canadian plaza to inspect commercial vehicles. Commercial vehicles which must travel under escort approximately three kilometres down Huron Church Road to an offsite inspection plaza. As well, the WDBA is building state-of-the-art infrastructure which will allow for any new technologies in the future.

While both projects have many years left before completion, there is little doubt that the discussion and excitement will be there when they are done.