The Overpass Is Falling Down, Falling Down

And you want the Government to be the owner of a new bridge in this area and to run and maintain it!

Yes, dear reader, as you read here the other day (and now in the Star) we seem to have problems at the one-year old Overpass on Huron Church Road.

The crowning achievement of this Administration, the project that defines how much they have achieved on the border file was the construction of the overpass for schoolkids.

And it has problems. Already.

In passing, I do believe that the City's medical re-imbursement program needs updating. "Mike Palanacki, the city's director of operations...said the bridge is being well-used by students at Assumption. "We have been monitoring that."

You would think that the person who was doing the monitoring and saw that the overpass was being used by the "70 per cent [of] The students concerned about their safety" would have been able to see "peeling paint on the steel columns of the overpass and weeds that are growing in the landscaped sections of the structure." Maybe the 70% figure is supect as well given how the City seems to look at numbers.

I do not understand it:

• Where is Sam Schwartz telling us that the Overpass has problems and may fall down unless there is major reconstruction.
• Where is Senator Kenny demanding that we build another one for redundancy purposes with wartime urgency since the health of our children are at risk.
• Why aren't our are West End activists and politicians organizing a bus tour to show us this.
• Why isn't the Mayor demanding that the Senior Levels build a tunnel now under Huron Church Road to improve the quality of life for the people around the area since they deserve the best
• Why hasn't the Windsor Health Unit sent no smoking enforcement officers with bottles of bleach to the overpass to chase away kids who smoke there.
• Why isn't the Star demanding air quality tests to measure the diesel fumes levels to which the kids may be exposed as they walk on the overpass
• Where is Brain Masse talking up the virtues of a "public" overpass

Oh well, the City lost its chance. The Bridge Co. offered to build an overpass at no cost to the City several years ago. Instead, the University became the recipient of their generosity with the $2 million donation and improved duty-free contract.

University President Ross Paul said that the relationship between the University and the Bridge Co. was a "a great win-win partnership." Clearly these two organizations learned how to build bridges! Too bad the City has not learned its lesson.