No Excuses Now: Build The Ambassador Bridge Project

Did you know that secondary is now primary on the border file.

I will bet that you cannot believe that there are more stories coming out about the Windsor/Detroit border.

But at least we know out of the mouth of Canada Customs, that the story about the need for a huge plaza in Sandwich was a huge lie. That myth was created by the DRIC Engineers to give a reason to knock out the best location, the existing Bridge plaza site. It would not require the destruction of Delray, Michigan either for good measure!

Accordingly, since the Enhancement Project Bridge was #1 in Michigan and was dropped for phony reasons, the Project should now be able to get moving immediately and the DRIC road can be designed to head there.

It would seem that the Bridge Company was right again. Their new clearing centres and the newest technologies for shippers have reduced the number of trucks that have to go to secondary inspection as I have Blogged before. Thus the need for a huge plaza in Sandwich is not necessary.

Wasn't that the reason why the Ambassador Bridge was supposedly eliminated? Does DRIC now need to reconsider its choice:

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  "At present, trucks that require further inspection after going through the primary booth are searched at the off-site.
  
  But Yen said the need for the offsite has been dramatically reduced in recent years because of new clearance procedures, such as line release, where truck cargo manifests are sent electronically in advance.
  
  This allows Customs to review them and when trucks arrive they “can be released right from the primary line” without further inspection.
  
  Very few trucks need to go to the off site, Yen said, and those that do require CBSA escorts which are costly and an inefficient use of resources.
  
  Escorts are required to ensure drivers don’t make stops or divert from route.
  
  It’s the same principle as when motorists are told to go to secondary and the Customs officer keeps an eye on them until they arrive at secondary on the same plaza.
  
  The distance between the bridge and the offsite is three kilometres The CBSA does not own the site.
  
  “Needless to say it’s not an efficient way of doing business,” Yen said. “It’s an objective and goal of ours to bring that back to the bridge proper.”
  

As I Blogged before:

• "So what is the significance of this:
  
  •it means that the Bridge Co.'s 40 acre plaza above is large enough to handle whatever needs to be done on the Canadian a side (the joint Canada-US plaza at the Peace Bridge proposed to be built in Canada for "Shared Border Management" would only be about 17 acres larger!)
  •there is no need for DRIC designed plazas of up to 120 acres which would impact Sandwich
  •it means that there will be, in effect, pre-clearance so that a truck can be cleared in 15-30 seconds rather than the 2 minutes or so required now
  •it means that the Ambassador Bridge capacity has sky-rocketed upwards since more trucks can be processed during the same time period, up to 4 times as many
  •it means that paperwork will not need to be done at counters at the border thereby freeing up Customs officers who can be postioned outside at customs booths to help clear trucks
  •it means secondary inspection does NOT have to be done at the border since the few trucks involved would move in convoys to the Bridge's secondary inspection site. And that means a 80-120 acre plaza is not needed. Forty acres is more than sufficient!
  •traffic on Huron Church southbound is improved because trucks will only need to use one lane since trucks have already been cleared and do not need slow down to make a right turn to go to secondary inspection.

Interestingly, Mr. Yee may not know that a few years ago, the off-site approach was not an issue as stated positively by his superiors.

But here is a lesson in how the bureaucratic mind works because they are spending taxpayer dollars:

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  very few trucks need to go to secondary






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  an escort has to take them there so that they can be examined properly and not escape






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  that is inefficient






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  it might take the equivalent of part of a salary for an officer and part of the use of a car to escort the few trucks there every day






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  instead, in order to be completely efficient, build a new DRIC plaza and bridge, destroy Delray and spend billions of taxpayer dollars.

Don't you just love Government!

As I Blogged before:

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  "But for the Plaza embellishment by the DRIC people who increased the size of the Plaza from 20 to 100-120 acres, the Ambassador Bridge would be the number one choice for the crossing. Now that we know the truth and that the Americans have said that the Ambassador Bridge is their preferred place where the new bridge should go, who in their right mind would spend hundreds of millions of dollars locating a bridge in an area of brine wells and salt mines and take the liability risk of a collapse. Just as in Sarnia, the experts looked up river and downriver but in the end decided to build the new bridge at the exact spot where the old bridge was located. It made the most sense there and makes the most sense here."

DRIC DRAWING

BRIDGE COMPANY PROPOSAL

A rendering of what the Bridge Co. says is all the land they need for their project.... not 80-120 acres in Sandwich that can destroy the Community as in the DRIC conceptual drawing of a plaza but their existing footprint!