The governments of Canada and the province of Ontario officially opened a new customs plaza at the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel, one of the busiest road crossings between the United States and Canada.
The Canadian federal government provided US$8 and the province added $20 million for the project that is part of security improvements and to speed up people processing facilities on the Canadian side of the tunnel.
Among the upgrades are new vehicle access lanes, new buildings for the Canada Border Services Agency and tunnel maintenance and new secondary inspection booths. The project also included updates to the duty-free parking area, municipal parking lots and existing intersections.
Local media reported that the plaza was the final project within a $240 million Canadian programme called Let’s Get Windsor-Essex Moving that started in 2004. Other infrastructure projects under the umbrella strategy include the widening of a section of the main southern Ontario freeway, Highway 401, near the town of Tilbury, close to Windsor.
The Detroit-Windsor Tunnel is a 1.6km two-lane immersed tube highway tunnel was completed in 1930 at a cost of $25 million. The crossing, which handles up to 13,000 vehicles a day, is owned by the city councils of Detroit and Windsor and operated through their Detroit-Windsor Tunnel Company. At its lowest point, the tunnel is 23m below the surface of the river. It was built by the firm3220 Parsons, Klapp, Brinckerhoff and Douglas.
Parsons, based in California, recently was appointed general contractor for another crossing of the Detroit River – a proposed six-lane toll bridge being funded and owned entirely by the Canadian government through a public-private partnership. The New International Trade Crossing, as it is known in the US, is in the early design stages, but likely will be a suspension or cable-stayed bridge, costing upwards of $2 billion including customs plazas and connecting roads.
The Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority, an arms-length company set up by the Canadian government to manage and own the bridge, called by Canadians the Detroit River International Crossing. The WDBA is already buying land on both sides of the border for the project. A request for quotation should be issued by the end of this year and a request for proposal by the end of 2016. Completion date is expected by 2020.
The Canadian federal government provided US$8 and the province added $20 million for the project that is part of security improvements and to speed up people processing facilities on the Canadian side of the tunnel.
Among the upgrades are new vehicle access lanes, new buildings for the Canada Border Services Agency and tunnel maintenance and new secondary inspection booths. The project also included updates to the duty-free parking area, municipal parking lots and existing intersections.
Local media reported that the plaza was the final project within a $240 million Canadian programme called Let’s Get Windsor-Essex Moving that started in 2004. Other infrastructure projects under the umbrella strategy include the widening of a section of the main southern Ontario freeway, Highway 401, near the town of Tilbury, close to Windsor.
The Detroit-Windsor Tunnel is a 1.6km two-lane immersed tube highway tunnel was completed in 1930 at a cost of $25 million. The crossing, which handles up to 13,000 vehicles a day, is owned by the city councils of Detroit and Windsor and operated through their Detroit-Windsor Tunnel Company. At its lowest point, the tunnel is 23m below the surface of the river. It was built by the firm
Parsons, based in California, recently was appointed general contractor for another crossing of the Detroit River – a proposed six-lane toll bridge being funded and owned entirely by the Canadian government through a public-private partnership. The New International Trade Crossing, as it is known in the US, is in the early design stages, but likely will be a suspension or cable-stayed bridge, costing upwards of $2 billion including customs plazas and connecting roads.
The Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority, an arms-length company set up by the Canadian government to manage and own the bridge, called by Canadians the Detroit River International Crossing. The WDBA is already buying land on both sides of the border for the project. A request for quotation should be issued by the end of this year and a request for proposal by the end of 2016. Completion date is expected by 2020.
