DETROIT – As the Ambassador Bridge closure stretches into its fourth day, workers at the bridge share their concerns over what’s happening.
The emptiness of the Ambassador Bridge is startling, to say the least, as they are empty to some degree.
It becomes genuinely startling when you take away 10,000 trucks a day, carrying $300 million goods a day.
It is getting attention worldwide as protests continue.
“Well, there is no one on sight right now with trucks not being able to pass over the bridge at all on either side right now,” said Shawn Taffinder, the Director of Fuel and Operations for the Ambassador Bridge. “It is kind of barren there. It is like a ghost town.”
Read: Truck blockade at Ambassador Bridge, US-Canada border shuts auto plants
The Ambassador Duty-Free Center at the end of the Ambassador Bridge on the Detroit side, Taffinder, is in charge of it.
Overnight, he got an alarming alert that trucks were slowly entering the U.S. Wednesday (Feb. 9), but for 16 hours now, no trucks or goods are crossing.
“We found out at 1 a.m. that there was a report that went out saying they blocked off the Canadian entrance U.S. bound trucks to cross over, so now not trucks are crossing right now,” Taffinder said.
Live cameras seen in the video player above on the Ambassador Bridge website show a shockingly empty checkpoint going into Canada and an empty checkpoint coming into the U.S.
“Never seen it like this even during the pandemic when it first started two years ago we still had essential workers crossing, but now, there is absolutely no one coming through,” Taffinder said.
Taffinder says the fuel center losing business is just the start, as the impact of the protests will be felt in just about every facet of life on both sides.
“Right now, we are sort of in limbo,” Taffinder said. “I hope things can work out on this side as well to and go from there.”
Read: Windsor mayor says Ambassador Bridge protesters ‘will be removed,’ if need be