Catastrophes Of Biblical Proportions

Are we seeing the truck tunnel equivalent of the Seven Plagues of Revelation or the Ten Plagues of Egypt?

Poor Eddie Francis and Sam Schwartz. Not only are residents raising issues with respect to some of the concepts outlined in the Greenlink presentation, but it seems as if everything is turning against them in the trucking world.

One mess after another in the short time frame since Sam's newest reoport became public. Some would call it just plain bad luck and co-incidental timing. Others might say that there was a superior reason...

We already know that the Detroit/Windsor Tunnel is a unique security concern but its issue differs from that which we are talking about in some respects. Here is what I mean about the tunnels and plagues.

The first one that we had was the horrible tunnel fire in Los Angeles that involved 29 vehicles and resulted in the deaths of three people. The road system on Interstate 5, a main road in California, will be in a mess until everything is fixed up.

Next, we learned about the EnviroTruck. As some of us have been saying for some time the changes in diesel technology and diesel fuel will eliminate a lot of the pollution and exhaust issues that gave rise to the demand for a tunnel. I hardly think that the Senior Levels will spend billions on a problem that is disappearing and which would set a precedent that they would have no interest in following in other jurisdictions across Canada.

Now another plague. We learn that there was a 22,000 litre spill of vegetable oil that spilled out on Ojibway. Can you imagine if it wasn't vegetable oil but something else and it had spilled into the tunnel that Eddie wants built. What kind of environmental and economic disaster would we be facing today?

Even more plagues. I did a bit of research and found that there have been a number of truck accidents in Windsor recently. If they were in the tunnels, would the emergency crews have real disasters on their hands? What do Fire and Police really think about tunnels never mind what the truck drivers have to say:

1. A jack-knifing big rig spilled an estimated 350 litres of diesel fuel onto the E.C. Row Expressway on Wednesday afternoon, closing the route during peak traffic for about three hours. September 27, 2007
2. Truck went out of control, rolled and rested on its roof. September 24, 2007
3. Two days after two crashes on Highway 401 near London involving commercial trucks claimed three lives, OPP officers took to the ground and to the air for a 24-hour traffic and vehicle safety crackdown Thursday. September 14, 2007
4. A tractor-trailer accident frustrated local drivers and commuters by bringing westbound E.C. Row Expressway traffic to a standstill on Thursday afternoon since diesel fuel spread across the road . August 24, 2007

The most recent concern came out of a judicial investigation in Québec as a result of an overpass collapse in Laval. It reminded me of the Big Dig accident. The news report stated:

• "The Quebec government, along with several engineers and companies, are being blamed for an overpass collapse in Laval that killed five people last year...
  
  the main causes for the disaster: a "total lack of quality control"; shoddy construction; and low-quality concrete used to build the overpass...
  
  Johnson is making 17 recommendations, including that the provincial government spend $500 million per year for at least 10 years on bridge and overpass repair and construction."

All that money needed for repairs and we want to spend billions here on a Garden of Eden Concept! I do not think so.

I'm sure you can see what I'm getting at. Just having nice artists' renditions Central Park in Windsor is insufficient and troubling to me. We can talk all we want about the Garden of Eden but no one seems to want to talk about the blazing inferno that we might see one day if an accident occurred. It's so much easier that way and so hard to argue against.

There are serious questions that need answering. All that we get from our local newspaper cheerleader is not analysis but name calling of those who dare have a different opinion or who want to help improve things around town.

Oh sure, we are going to be given the utmost assurances that the tunnels will be built to the most modern standards possible but that was said too about the Chunnel between England and France before their big fire.

It really doesn't matter because Sam's proposal is never going to be built in the form that it is being proposed. It was never designed to be built but was designed to stall. Schwartz report #1 lasted almost a year before it was rejected and became a "starting point." Full tunnelling lasted even longer and became a tool of negotiation. A full environmental assessment of the Garden of Eden will take some time too as Eddie says for the third time that it is non-negotiable.

There must be some logic behind all this. Perhaps soon we mere taxpayers could be let in on it.