Backers of the proposed $400 million Canadian effort to build a larger commercial train tunnel underneath the Detroit River said today that they will soon have all financing and approvals in place, and construction will begin in the second or third quarter of 2014.
Right now, the project still lacks half its estimated funding needs and some of its regulatory approvals.
Marge Byington Potter, executive director of corporate affairs for Continental Rail Gateway project, declined to disclose the financing plan, but did say the required Presidential Permit will be sought from the U.S. Department of State next year.
She also said a plan is in place that will have the funding in place early next year. It could be a mix of government and private money.
"We are getting our financing in very good shape right now," she said.
The project also still requires Canadian environmental approvals, Byington Potter said, adding that all the permitting is on track for 2014 approval.
Much of the pre-construction work is finished, she said.

"Engineering is in place. All the testing has been done. We will go out for bid for the tunnel boring machine and be looking for construction [[bids), on both sides of the river," she said.

Design and engineering work has been done by Omaha, Neb.-based HDR Inc.; Toronto-based MMM Group, and Iselin, N.J.-based Hatch Mott Macdonald Group Inc.

The project is expected to take three years, meaning the tunnel could open in 2017.

The tunnel effort, in the works for more than a decade, is aimed at constructing a larger rail tunnel that could accommodate double-stacked, 9-foot-6 containers and some new generations of multilevel rail cars used by shippers and auto manufacturers.

The current century-old tunnel isn't big enough to handle the new train cars, even after a previous expansion.

Participants in the tunnel project are Toronto-based Borealis Infrastructure Management Inc., Calgary-based Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. and the Windsor Port Authority.

Borealis, investment arm of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, is expected to finance most of the tunnel work

Borealis has more than $55 billion in assets and increased its stake in the tunnel and the project from 50 percent to 83.5 percent in an $87.7 million deal in 2009.

The current Detroit tunnel — its entrance is within the square created by 12th and 16th streets, Bagley Street and West Lafayette Boulevard — was built in 1909 and enlarged in 1994. The tunnel, along with the nearby land needed for a new tube, is owned by Borealis and Canadian Pacific.

In Windsor, the tunnel portal is just south of the intersection of Wyandotte Street and Wellington Avenue.

It handles about 350,000 rail cars annually.

The tunnel consortium has said it has spent between $75 million and $100 million in engineering and environmental studies since it was launched in 2001.

Currently, only the $200 million freight and passenger train tunnel, built in 1994 underneath the St. Clair River between Port Huron and Sarnia, Ontario, by Canadian National Railway Corp., can handle the largest rail freight trains. CN maintains that tunnel almost exclusively for its own trains.