Following months of public input from residents, business owners, lawmakers, and other interested parties, the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) has decided it will lift some restrictions on the transport of materials over the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit.
This action by MDOT follows a four-year public process officials say will dramatically improves safety and enhance the smooth flow of international commerce in the Detroit-Windsor corridor.
The Ambassador Bridge has acknowledged MDOT's decision to lift restrictions on fuel and battery materials crossing the bridge.
Lifting the restrictions reduces the number of miles driven by commercial motor vehicles hauling fuel in Michigan by over 250,000 miles annually.
Bridge officials say it will not create any material truck traffic increases, that these materials don't include radioactive materials or hazardous waste and that these truckloads will be escorted across the bridge by safety vehicles.
But Windsor-West MP Brian Masse is concerned about the change, saying it's significant as there's increased environmental impacts if there are any accidents.
"It'll be more congestion, I don't believe the Ambassador Bridge by any fact. In fact, you're adding vehicles and the Ontario Trucking Association actually lobbied to not have escort vehicles. I made a submission, and so did the City of Windsor, against this. The province of Ontario and the federal government of Canada chose not to make a submission," he said.
Masse says MDOT's report shows a detailed risk assessment, but that has not been done on the Canadian side.
So that means we bear the brunt of any risk that takes place as traffic is relocated, according to Masse.
"If you look at the maps they go through the City of Detroit, they do all those different things to make sure there's a risk assessment done. The province of Ontario has stood down on that, and not done that, and the federal government has not done that either. So we don't even know what the actual risks are from actually adding this traffic into our city streets and neighbourhoods which we fought to get trucks off from."
Under former transportation minister Marc Garneau, Masse says there was some engagement in the process but that hasn't continued under successive ministers.
He says there's questions for both the provincial and federal governments for why they didn't move on this.
"What have you done to analyze the effect of these hazardous materials and new corrosive materials that will now go through city streets, the Expressway, and other areas. And then on top of that we also as local taxpayers will have to foot the bill with regards to having more extensive fire fighting capabilities with regards to any types of problems that take place," Masse said.
Ambassador Bridge officials say the fire suppression system on the bridge meets all applicable codes, is designed to address incidents arising from all of the foregoing materials, and is regularly inspected by both the City of Detroit Fire Department and the City of Windsor Fire and Rescue Services.
- with files from AM800's The Shift with Patty Handysides