Quote:
Originally Posted by craigbear
My guess is maybe you just saw a blogger, or a participant in a comment thread, speculating about something they had no actual knowledge of.
I just checked the monthly crossing statistics, and Sault Ste. Marie only gets about one fifth to one seventh as much personal vehicle traffic as either Detroit/Windsor or Buffalo/Fort Erie does -- and when it comes to trucking, SSM only gets about 3K trucks per month to Buffalo's 84K and Detroit's 128K. Which means the business case for a second bridge just isn't there the way it is in Detroit/Windsor -- not to mention that the United States would also have to build a whole interstate spur to get from Sugar Island to I-75, including a second bridge across the shipping channel that actually separates Sugar Island from the UP mainland, and that's just not happening.
Realistically, the most you'll ever see is a twinned span of the existing bridge, with the connection to Carmen's Way realigned. And even that, you won't be seeing anytime real soon.
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I disagree. There has been certainly been talk for awhile about a second crossing that would become the truck route. I visit the Sault a lot and most of my family lives there. There are many times during the day that you get stuck on the bridge because customs is and there are many transport trucks waiting as well. The customs facilities on both sides of the river are lacking for transport trucks which makes things really slow down when crossing. I don't think the second river crossing will happen for at leat 20-30 years but it will eventually happen. Crossing from Sugar Island in Michigan to Ontario won't require a high up bridge as the ships take the route through Lake Nicolet.
One recent example I can think of is in St. Stephen, New Brunswick and Calais, Maine. There used to only be a local river crossing but a 4 lane divided freeway river crossing was built that bypasses St. Stephen, crosses the St. Croix River into Maine. Now trucks and traffic don't have to drive through both border towns.
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