The new chair of the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority wants to assure Windsor-Essex residents the new Gordie Howe International Bridge will be ready by 2020.
The outgoing chairman of the body overseeing construction of the bridge, Mark McQueen, expressed concerns the project would not be ready on time in a briefing paper to federal Transport Minister Amarjeet Sohi. McQueen points to the delay of the shortlist of three bidders to build the massive project.
However, Dwight Duncan is very confident the project will be on time.
"We're well within the 18 months that the board established back in July for awarding the tenders," he says. "Part of the change was the change in (federal) government. The RFP (Request For Proposals) has to go to cabinet. It hadn't gone to the previous cabinet."
He says the shortlist will be announced "fairly, fairly soon." It was expected December 15, 2015.
The projected cost of the bridge has also ballooned to $4.8-billion — an increase of $3.5-billion. A secret briefing note to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, which was obtained by the Canadian Press, says $2-billion of the increase is because the dollar has lost value as the price of oil fell precipitously.
Duncan says there's no way the government could have predicted such a significant drop in the value of the dollar.
"When I retired from public office, the dollar was at par. Nobody was predicting oil at $30, and that's the challenge with this project," he says. "There are ways of hedging these things to help mitigate that impact."
The briefing note says another $1.5-billion will be put in a contingency fund in case the dollar falls further.