DETROIT – The Detroit-Windsor Truck Ferry serves a critical role in helping get hazardous materials across the border.
Owner of the company Greg Ward told Local 4 he is happy that the Gordie Howe International Bridge is being built, even though it will put him out of business. The new bridge from the United States to Canada will handle a lot of the similar freight the ferry trucks can.
Ward’s boat takes shipments too big or dangerous to go over the Ambassador Bridge. The company has been around for three decades.
But to continue operations on both sides of the river, the truck ferry company needs $80,000 a month until the Gordie Howe Bridge is completed. Ward said he couldn’t see his business getting past the summer without state or federal assistance.
“You’re building battery plants which inputs are hazardous, and output is hazardous material. You know you’re going to be increasing hazmat, so are you going to have to drive all the way around Port Huron and Lake St. Clair and go through all those communities?” asked Ward.
Ward said he believes that public funds to essentially run the private business makes good economic sense if environmental concerns hold sway.
“We are not familiar with the economic condition of Mr. Ward’s business. Several kinds of hazardous materials have safely crossed the Ambassador Bridge for decades. Gasoline and batteries have not been allowed. Currently, those goods bypass the Ambassador Bridge and travel 60 additional miles to the Blue Water Bridge. We’ve asked MDOT to lift the restrictions and doing so will be safer because it reduces the number of miles that those goods are on Michigan roads.
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Ambassador Bridge representitive -- April 3, 2023