Interesting news today from the Windsor star. The DRIC group finally presented there border crossing plan.
The plan features 11 tunnels totalling 1.85 km in length, 240 acres of parkland covering the tunnels and 20 more creational trails. 12,000 jobs to be created mostly in Windsor. Here's the actual article from today:
DRIC defends its parkway plan
Doug Williamson, Windsor Star
Published: Thursday, May 01, 2008
WINDSOR - The Detroit River International Crossing study group defended the release of its $1.6 billion proposed Windsor-Essex Parkway Thursday, even though many of the technical details were not available for the public and the environmental assessment is not yet complete.
"We're not done yet but we've reached a very significant milestone," Dave Wake, the group's Windsor project manager, told a news conference.
The DRIC package announced Thursday calls for 11 tunnels totalling 1.85 km in length, 240 acres of parkland covering the tunnels and 20 more creational trails. Officials said 12,000 jobs will be created in Ontario, mostly in Windsor.
There are 300 properties along the proposed below-grade, six land freeway connecting Highway 401 to a new border crossing yet to be determined. Natarelli said some properties have already been purchased.
Wake and other officials also insisted the proposal contains many elements of the city's more ambitious GreenLink proposal, such as parkland and recrreational trails.
"We've incorporated the best of GreenLink," Wake said.
Added another provincial rrepresentative, Fausto Natarelli: "There's a lot of similarities between these two concepts."
Wake and Natarelli also said the DRIC team will meet with city council later this month.
Asked why the announcement was made Thursday when all the details are not complete, Natarelli said: "There's a significant amount of information that underpins the work."
Added Wake: "We're here to help move things ahead and reduce the uncertainty in the community."
Natarelli cited support from many outside groups, including Chrysler, the University of Windsor, the Windsor and District Chamber of Commerce, Windsor Regional Hospital, the Labourers and Teamters unions and local industrialist Michael Solcz.
"It's time that we move this thing along," Solcz said, adding he feels that DRIC has taken elements of GreenLink into account.
"We've got to move forward," said Peter Hrastovic of the chamber of commerce. "We are suffering in this comunity."
David Musyj, president and CEO of Windsor Regional Hospital, said the DRIC proposal will alleviate conditions for patients and staff of the hospital's western campus.
"Anything that removes congestion off Huron Line is a good solutiom," Musyj said. "It's just going to get worse if we don't do something."
But Mayor Eddie Francis was unenthusiastic about the government's long-awaited plan for border access roads.
In an interview moments before the Detroit River International Crossing study group publicly announced its final recommendation, Francis called the proposal of the new Windsor-Essex Parkway little different than what several levels of government proposed last year.
"They have once again delayed the environmental assessment," Francis said, adding that there's virtually no change to the original tunnel proposals.
The Windsor-sponsored GreenLink proposal called for more tunnelling and greenspace than the DRIC recommendation - 3,830 metres compared to 1,800 metres, according to Francis.
"It's the same proposal, effectively, that they presented in August of 2007," Francis said.
Francis is pleased that DRIC added tunnel at Spring Garden, but is disappointed that some was reduced at Cousineau.
Francis said DRIC did one thing well: its marketing video.
The slick video played at the announcement, repeatedly hammering home one line: "The Windsor-Essex Parkway is the right solution now."
A crowd of construction workers and representatives of the companies that employ them were on hand Thursday at the Holiday Inn in Windsor as area industrial, municipal and other officials got a first look at the Detroit River International Crossing study group's proposed border solution.
"The parkway provides a modern state-of-the-art freeway with the flexibility to meet the unique needs of a border crossing, with the added benefit of over 1.8 kilometres of tunnels," intoned the video's narrator. "Traffic will no longer have to brake, idle or accelerate at traffic signals, helping to reduce tailpipe emission and ease congestion."
The video touted benefits such as improved air quality, better community connections, and jobs.
"The parkway represents one of Canada's most ambitious roadway projects ever," the video says. "Once completed, the Windsor-Essex Parkway will host the most modern border transportation in North America."
DRIC said it will be the most expensive highway built in Ontario, and will create an estimated 12,000 jobs.
"Today's a monumental day," said Jim Lyons, executive director of the Heavy Construction Association of Windsor, which represents 70 companies and "thousands" of workers. The association brought along several front-end loaders, dump trucks and other pieces of construction equipment, which jammed the already full parking lot.
"We know this has been a long process," Lyons said. "We're hungry for work. We're going to be at full employment. There's going to be substantial construction. We're going to be a very busy sector."
Additional details will be posted on windsorstar.com as they are released and full coverage, including maps and graphics, will be published in Friday's Windsor Star.
FYI
The city spent over 4 million dollars on the creation of the greenlink border solution and recently invested 300,000 dollars in promotional advertising for the greenlink plan.
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