Ambassador Bridge on capacity brink: Study

WINDSOR, Ont. (Nov. 28, 2003) — The Ambassador Bridge linking Ontario and Michigan is closer to capacity than its owners have been claiming, according to a research study released by the Booker T. Washington Business Association in Detroit. And if the problem isn’t addressed soon, the report adds, border delays will only worsen and both state economies will be harmed.

The research was done for the Detroit River Tunnel Partnership, a group led by Canadian Pacific Railway and Borealis Capital, which proposes to expand an existing rail tunnel under the Detroit River to handle both trucks and trains. The tunnel could be ready by 2007, the group says.

The other front-running proposal to alleviate border congestion includes twinning the Ambassador and building a second span about five kilometers downstream. A decision on which option will get the nod does not seem to be imminent.

The bridge’s operator, the Detroit International Bridge Co., says the bridge operates at less than 60 per cent of its full potential. The company adds that rigorous U.S. inspections — and too few inspectors — are the reasons for the huge delays that truckers face in trying to cross from Windsor, Ont. into Michigan.

A study done last year suggested the bridge was actually at 72 per cent capacity, but the new report — titled “The Economic Impact of Adequate Border-Crossing Infrastructure” — says the figure is much higher. Its chief author, Dr. Michael H. Belzer, says the bridge system — including the bridge itself, access roads, toll plazas and government checkpoints — is now at 92 per cent capacity, and “…significantly exceeds capacity during many hours of the average work day.” At its busiest, the bridge handles some 6000 trucks a day in each direction, averaging a combined 10,000 trucks.

The 57-page study claims to be the first comprehensive look at Detroit-Windsor border capacity. The economists and transportation experts who formed the research team used computer models, trade projections, trucker interviews, and on-site inspections to complete their work.

However, a spokesperson for a division of the Ambassador Bridge group which wants to build a new trucks-only bridge between Fort Erie, Ont. with Buffalo, N.Y., told Today’s Trucking earlier this month that such reports are entirely subjective, and contradict the Ambassador group’s own studies.