PRIVATE FIRM TO PROPOSE ALTERNATIVE SPAN

[CITY Edition]

Buffalo News

 

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Print Media Edition: Financial edition

Buffalo, N.Y.

Oct 21, 1999

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Authors: DOUGLAS TURNER

Pagination: A1

Dateline: WASHINGTON

Personal Names: Johnstone, Gail

 

Abstract:

The private company that owns the Ambassador Bridge connecting Windsor,

Ont., and Detroit is assembling a proposal to build a span across the

Niagara

River at Buffalo as an alternative to the Peace Bridge's twin-span

project.

[Dan] Stamper stressed that the company has not made a firm offer to

build

a bridge but is working with professionals to develop a proposal to

show

to government officials, the Buffalo and Fort Erie, Ont., communities

and

a Peace Bridge review panel funded by local government and two

foundations.

That bridge is anchored in the Fort Erie, Ont., community of

Bridgeburg,

crosses the upper Niagara shoals and Squaw Island and terminates in

Buffalo's

Black Rock neighborhood near Bridge Street.

Copyright Buffalo News Oct 21, 1999

Full Text:

The private company that owns the Ambassador Bridge connecting Windsor,

Ont., and Detroit is assembling a proposal to build a span across the

Niagara

River at Buffalo as an alternative to the Peace Bridge's twin-span

project.

"Give us enough information about building a bridge that meets the

community's

needs, and we will find a way to do it," said Dan Stamper, president of

the company that owns the Detroit River span.

Stamper stressed that the company has not made a firm offer to build a

bridge but is working with professionals to develop a proposal to show

to government officials, the Buffalo and Fort Erie, Ont., communities

and

a Peace Bridge review panel funded by local government and two

foundations.

Congressional sources said one route under consideration would parallel

the 1873-vintage International Bridge owned by Canadian National

Railroad.

That bridge is anchored in the Fort Erie, Ont., community of

Bridgeburg,

crosses the upper Niagara shoals and Squaw Island and terminates in

Buffalo's

Black Rock neighborhood near Bridge Street.

If it did build a bridge in Buffalo, Stamper's company, formally known

as the Detroit International Bridge Co., would

use private resources.

Any expansion by the Peace Bridge Authority would use cash reserves and

government revenue bonds, which are moral obligations of the state.

"We're not looking to involve ourselves in a local controversy,"

Stamper

said. "We have been told you have a problem, and we want to see if we

can

solve it."

Stamper declined to identify the person who aroused the company's

interest

in the issue.

"We were led to believe that Buffalo and Fort Erie may have a

misunderstanding

of what you need for your region," he said. "This situation needs to be

looked at from a global perspective, with the Niagara and Fort Erie

region

as part of a world trade corridor."

Over the past two months, Stamper and Remo Mancini, a Canadian who is

vice

president of the company, have met with aides to Gov. Pataki and

others.

On Monday, Stamper and Mancini conferred in Buffalo with Jack

O'Donnell,

aide to Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., and with James B. Kane,

Buffalo

district office director for Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y.

Kane said the company appears interested in the idea of a bridge that

primarily

would carry truck traffic, moving it away from the congestion at the

Peace

Bridge and directly on to the Interstate highway system.

The Ambassador Bridge executives also saw Mayor Masiello, who was

described

by his spokesman Peter Cutler as "committed to the review process that

is in place and which does not now include a proposal from the

Ambassador

Bridge."

Cutler was referring to the Public Consensus Review Panel considering

Peace

Bridge alternatives. At its meeting Wednesday, the panel agreed to see

the Ambassador Bridge officials "in the future," said Gail Johnstone, a

member.

Kane and O'Donnell asked the committee to hear Stamper, Johnstone said.

Stamper's group "would have to abide by the same ground rules,"

Johnstone

said, that are imposed "on every other group that appears before the

committee,

submit to the same questions and answers in public, and deal with the

same

template of issues."

No date has been set for that appearance, she said.

The Ambassador Bridge handles 13 million vehicle crossings a year and

carries

more traffic across the northern border than any other bridge or

tunnel.

Opened in 1929, it is privately owned, with Manuel Moroun, an

influential

72-year-old millionaire of Grosse Pointe, Mich., the largest

stockholder.

No one knows what the stockholders earn, but the Detroit News reported

that gross toll revenues exceed $20 million a year. Toll for an auto is

$2.25 each way -- more than double the price now charged by the Peace

Bridge

Authority.

Kane said federal funds would have to finance construction of

interstate

connections and new approaches to a bridge in Black Rock. The state of

Michigan recently spent $100 million in federal and state funds on

improving

approaches to the Ambassador Bridge.

The span long ago replaced the Peace Bridge as the number one crossing

point along the northern border.

The Peace Bridge opened in 1927 and, like the Ambassador Bridge, was

built

with private money. In 1933, during the business collapse of the Great

Depression, the state bailed out investors, and the bridge authority

was

established.

Calls to the Peace Bridge Authority for comment were not returned.

Caption: DENNIS C. ENSER/Buffalo News The International Bridge owned by

the Canadian National Railroad, shown in the white box, is a possible

site

for a new bridge across the Niagara River. The Peace Bridge is in the

foreground.

map- proposed span would cross parallel to existing railroad bridge.

Charles

V. Tines/Detroit News The Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and

Windsor,

Ont., has been privately operated since it opened in 1929.

Credit: News Washington Bureau Chief