Ambassador Bridge should be twinned

The Ambassador Bridge has been and still is part of the major commercial highway for Windsor and many other parts of Ontario, Canada and the United States.

The designers and builders of the bridge constructed it so that we have witnessed more than 10,000 18-wheel transport trucks a day lined up bumper-to-bumper going both ways across the bridge. The bridge is now showing its age (87 years) and needs repairs. The owners of the bridge are willing to twin it even though the new Gordie Howe International Bridge will take away most of the traffic volume they now service.

Let them twin the Ambassador Bridge. However, with the new bridge being built only two kilometres away, there should be a dedicated road to the new Gordie Howe site. This dedicated road would be used specifically for customs inspections of trucks for both the twinned portion of the Ambassador Bridge and the Gordie Howe bridge. (Hopefully without too much damage to Old Sandwich.)

The result would be: only one location for Canada Customs to inspect all trucks from both bridges; all truck traffic using the new highway and not Huron Church Road; the houses that the Ambassador Bridge Company had purchased for the area that they thought would be needed for truck inspections for a twinned portion of their bridge could be refurbished and resold; new Canadian jobs for the construction of the twin span (half of the cost should be spent in Canada under the contract); and competitive crossing rates and a choice of destination.

Please strive to get all approvals passed and to get both bridges constructed as soon as possible before something unforeseen happens to the old Ambassador Bridge which would jeopardize jobs relying on the transfer of goods and materials now crossing the Detroit River. F. Daniel Ouellette, Lakeshore