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Roads: Ambassador & Gordie Howe Bridges

drum118

drum118

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As long as this doesn't stop the Gordie Howe Bridge, I'm for it. Provides redundancy.

Maybe with this approval they won't fight against the new span so much. The $1.5 Billion 401 extension is essentially a road to nowhere until it is built.
 
Haljackey said:
Maybe with this approval they won't fight against the new span so much. The $1.5 Billion 401 extension is essentially a road to nowhere until it is built.
Click to expand...

You still travel on about 75% of the 401 extension to reach the Ambassador bridge. So only a small fraction is currently a road to nowhere.
 
Approval doesn't mean a new Ambassador Bridge will be built. With the 401 extension completed and political support in Windsor for a new bridge to take the congestion off of city streets, it's unlikely that the government of Canada will back down from building the Gordie Howe bridge. It's the best solution for Canada. Trade will be more efficient with the direct highway connection. Windsor will be a better off without the current levels of traffic on Huron Church Road. With the Gordie Howe bridge handling most traffic and the Detroit Windsor Tunnel providing relief, what business case is there for a new Ambassador Bridge? The owner may not even get to demolish the heritage homes in the path of the new span that he boarded up on Indian Road.
 
Well, aside from the complications of its being an international crossing, one can argue that a third crossing for the Detroit-Windsor zone is long overdue, anyway...
 
junctionist said:
It's hard to imagine the old bridge being demolished. It's clearly a heritage structure, though it's merely listed as a heritage structure and not designated as such.
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They will keep the old structure operational in case of an emergency. Having the 3 crossings on 5 separate structures (2 bridges for both bridge crossings) gives enough redundancy in case of an emergency. Right now if there was a long-term shut-down of the Ambassador I would shudder at the economic consequences.

Right now they keep the hazardous materials off the bridge (there is another crossing..a ferry) to reduce the risk of a shut-down.
 
junctionist said:
Approval doesn't mean a new Ambassador Bridge will be built. With the 401 extension completed and political support in Windsor for a new bridge to take the congestion off of city streets, it's unlikely that the government of Canada will back down from building the Gordie Howe bridge. It's the best solution for Canada. Trade will be more efficient with the direct highway connection. Windsor will be a better off without the current levels of traffic on Huron Church Road. With the Gordie Howe bridge handling most traffic and the Detroit Windsor Tunnel providing relief, what business case is there for a new Ambassador Bridge? The owner may not even get to demolish the heritage homes in the path of the new span that he boarded up on Indian Road.
Click to expand...

And the land issues on the Detroit side have mostly been resolved. Residents displaced by the bridge approaches and customs facilities from Interstate 75 will be provided with renovated homes nearby.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/winds...n-dollar-property-deal-with-detroit-1.4174880
 
muller877 said:
They will keep the old structure operational in case of an emergency. Having the 3 crossings on 5 separate structures (2 bridges for both bridge crossings) gives enough redundancy in case of an emergency. Right now if there was a long-term shut-down of the Ambassador I would shudder at the economic consequences.

Right now they keep the hazardous materials off the bridge (there is another crossing..a ferry) to reduce the risk of a shut-down.
Click to expand...
I was reading that one of the conditions for this new Ambassador bridge is for the old bridge to be demolished within 5 years of opening the new span.
 
raptor said:
I was reading that one of the conditions for this new Ambassador bridge is for the old bridge to be demolished within 5 years of opening the new span.
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Its a bridge that out live is use and one reason a request was made in 2004 for a new one. Even the report states it.

Once the new bridge is open, the old one will be remove, as it cost money to maintain it if it was to stay up and not worth the money to do so. Just think what the ends would look like if both bridges were to be use after the new one is built.:eek::eek:
 
ShonTron said:
And the land issues on the Detroit side have mostly been resolved. Residents displaced by the bridge approaches and customs facilities from Interstate 75 will be provided with renovated homes nearby.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/winds...n-dollar-property-deal-with-detroit-1.4174880
Click to expand...

The other issue, though, is that the Ambassador Bridge owner owns 17 properties in the path of the Gordie Howe bridge. He's doing whatever he can to avoid selling the land needed to build the Gordie Howe bridge. It's just a matter of time until the government gets control of it, but it means more delays and costs involved that only serve to prop up his bridge business.
 
The Ambassador's probably the ungainliest of interwar suspension bridges, anyway--the unanchored side spans don't help, nor do the steel trestle approaches. Its whole configuration (including that of its private ownership from Day 1) is painfully anachronistic--it got what it deserved in the Marouns, and the Marouns got what they deserved. (But let's hope the tower signs are in some way preserved.)

As for Gordie Howe--look at it this way: as an Interstate/401-compatible crossing, it's practically half a century overdue. Niagara got its equivalent (Lewiston-Queenston) way back in 1962.
 
junctionist said:
The other issue, though, is that the Ambassador Bridge owner owns 17 properties in the path of the Gordie Howe bridge. He's doing whatever he can to avoid selling the land needed to build the Gordie Howe bridge. It's just a matter of time until the government gets control of it, but it means more delays and costs involved that only serve to prop up his bridge business.
Click to expand...

Yes, and the Morouns have constantly been serving lawsuits against the Gordie Howe Bridge (the latest was tossed out in August) while being rather sketchy in their dealings (literally building the ramps to their future bridge, slumlording in Windsor, maintenance issues with the Ambassador Bridge, the whole US on-ramp issue that literally saw the elder Moroun go to prison for a bit, etc.). It definitely feels like they were unduly rewarded despite all of this.

I feel like some sort of backroom deal was inked between the Morouns and the Liberals, considering how happy they seemed to be when Trudeau got into power. Here's hoping that the Gordie Howe bridge manages to get underway in 2018 and not drift into an uncertain future.

I think it would be ideal if most truck traffic shifted to the Gordie Howe Bridge, as any Ambassador Bridge replacement still runs through local Windsor streets.
 
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