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