With new types of hazardous material now crossing the Ambassador Bridge, this truck driver says it's good news

As new types of hazardous materials began rolling across the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ont., Tuesday, at least one truck driver says he's relieved by the change. 

Brian Wilkins carries Class 3 flammable materials, one of two new types of materials now allowed on the bridge. Until now, Wilkins says his routes have included a nearly six-hour round-trip route up to the Blue Water Bridge near Sarnia, Ont., and back. 

"Instead of us driving 30 minutes to deliver a load ... [between Detroit and Windsor] — now you're talking five and a half hours," Wilkins said. 

Before the change, Wilkins had used a dedicated truck ferry on his cross-border routes. But when that service was shut down last year, he needed to start travelling up through Michigan to Port Huron, and down again to Windsor. 

It took him through farmland and across country roads. The Ambassador Bridge, he says, is the better way to go. He says it doesn't make anyone less safe. 

"It's so stress relieving — especially right before the winter," he said. "I can sit here and tell you horror stories of taking those back roads trying to get up to Port Huron when it's snowing like crazy, the roads are icy — and behind I have 30,000 pounds of the most wicked stuff you can think about."

Michigan's department of transportation started studying allowing Class 3 and Class 8, corrosive materials, across the bridge in 2021 after it was requested by the company that owns the bridge in 2020.

Other types of hazardous materials, including flammable solids and toxic and infectious substances, are already cleared to cross the bridge. 

The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) announced the approval earlier this year after public consultation and technical studies. 

The new Gordie Howe International Bridge will also be cleared to transport hazardous materials when it opens next fall. 

When Wilkins drives across the Ambassador Bridge, on either side he's using the same roads as he did when he used the ferry. 

MDOT has flagged one safety concern that Wilkins says he shares: The 95-year-old bridge lacks a fire suppression system that will put out a fire involving the flammable material he carries. Those types of fires need to be extinguished with a special foam that would need to be brought from a nearby fire department.  

The Ambassador Bridge company has said the fire suppression system on the bridge "meets all applicable codes [and] is designed to address incidents arising from all the foregoing materials."

There are other safety measures in place as well. The Ambassador Bridge has said that trucks will not be allowed to cross immediately if it's expected they'll need to wait in traffic at the top of the bridge and over the river, will travel during off-peak hours and they'll be accompanied by an escort car. 

But while Wilkins is embracing the change, and U.S. federal officials have OKed it, it's drawing harsh and pointed criticism on the Windsor side of the border. 

"We know the border officers won't even get the proper training they need to deal with the eventual disasters that will occur," Windsor-West MP Brian Masse said in the House of Commons last week.

"Instead of detailed in-person courses to go over what to do in the case of disasters, they are learning from two slides in an online slideshow."

The City of Windsor spent months lobbying against the change, but says it's a federal issue.

The federal government has told CBC Windsor the issue is not within its jurisdiction either and pointed to the province — but the province says it has no jurisdiction to regulate a private company like the one that runs the bridge.