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MDOT Eyes Lifting Hazmat Ban On Ambassador Bridge

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For more than eight decades, trucks transporting hazardous materials have been prohibited from traveling on the Ambassador Bridge.  Instead, trucks transporting hazardous materials were forced to use the Detroit-Windsor Truck Ferry to cross the Detroit River. That may be about to change.

MDOT officials are campaigning to have the ban lifted, but Canadian officials have concerns about lifting the ban.

Mario Sonego, chief engineer for Windsor, told Detroit News, “There’s not enough detail or consultation that has to be in a report of this magnitude.  We’re concerned about who MDOT did and didn’t consult.”

In 2008, the Detroit International Bridge Company, the company that owns the Ambassador Bridge, requested the ban be lifted.  In response to the request, MDOT began reviewing all the routes in the state that restricted hazardous materials.

“In a study released Dec. 27, the department OK’d transporting flammable gas/liquids, flammable solids and reactants, oxidants and peroxides, poisonous materials and infectious substances, corrosive materials and other dangerous products across the Ambassador,” the Detroit News reported.

However, at the time, MDOT did not recommend lifting the ban on explosives and radioactive material.

MDOT is seeking public comment on the issue until May 27.  If the ban is lifted, it likely will not take effect for another year.

Read more about this at Detroit News.

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