Ambassador Bridge ramp being demolished
Some residents in Ward 2 don't need an alarm clock to get them up for work.
'It's shaking every morning actually from 7 a.m.,' said Henry Cui about his house on Indian Road near Wyandotte Street West.
The ramp to a preposed second span of the Ambassador Bridge, a span that was never built, is being demolished.
Jackhammering began Monday and before that a number of homes were demolished on Cui's street in March.
'It's just funny that one day, all of a sudden, these homes are all gone and nobody said anything. After 25 years of fighting, we don't know,' said Chris Siefker, who lives a block over on Rosedale Avenue.
Jennifer Jackson, 74, who lives behind Cui, said, 'I don't know what's happening behind us right now. I'm kind of scared because I don't know if I'm going to have to move or what's going on. Nobody tells you anything.'
Ward 2 Coun. Fabio Costante said the demolition is part of the Bridge Corporation's plan to build a new plaza in this area north of the tracks on Huron Church near College Avenue.
'They're just tearing it down now and moving forward with their other plans looking at amalgamating their plaza inspection to the foot of the bridge,' Costante told CTV News.
The permit to build a second span had a five-year window and expired in 2022, primarily due to permitting issues and disagreements with Canadian authorities.
Requirements included having to demolish the existing bridge after a new one was built. Costante said a new plaza on the west side of Huron Church road will satisfy federal conditions imposed in 2017, but neighbours say they remain in the dark.
'They (Bridge Corporation and City of Windsor) haven't told us what the plaza is going to look like, what the street closures are going to look like, where the fire hall is going,' Siefker remarked. 'I've heard through the grapevine different things that have happened, but that nobody's communicating with any of us and this affects our entire neighborhood, like we're talking 40 blocks that are all going to be affected.'
Costante said progress has been made and is optimistic about the outcome.
'There's been a change of tone, certainly, from the Bridge Company in the last few years and again, I'm very hopeful that we're at the tail end of this very, very long journey,' said Costante.
Jackson hopes Costante is right, 'My hope is that this gets resolved soon and we don't have to wait years and years and years like we did with the boarded-up houses.'
CTV reached out to the bridge corporation but did not get a response for this article.
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