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From Daily Commercial News and Construction Record:
Province assembles engineering team to study Windsor border crossing
DON PROCTER
correspondent
The new Windsor Crossing planned for completion in 2013 couldn’t happen at a better time for the city, considering the current woes of Windsor’s auto manufacturing sector.
But while the big cable-stayed bridge and associated highway approaches could shift into gear possibly next year, one of the big unanswered questions is how it will be tendered and financed. The province has assembled a team of engineers called Windsor BIG (Border Initiatives Implementation Group) to deal with the execution of issues such as drawings, financing and tendering.
“We’ve heard that there may be some kind of P3 public/private partnership for the tender of the plaza and the bridge,” says Jim Lyons, executive director of the Heavy Construction Association (HCA) of Windsor.
That’s not surprising, but Lyons isn’t sure that approach (also known as Alternative Financing and Procurement) is such a good idea for the balance of the work, which primarily consists of the Windsor-Essex Parkway.
HCA members favour a traditional tendering approach, he says. Their concern is that an AFP package won’t “lure” as many local and provincial contractors to bid on the project.
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