The former general manager of the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission wants to convert a seldom-used cross-border railroad freight span into an international bridge for commercial trucks.

Allen Gandell, who resigned from the commission last month, now serves as project coordinator for Whirlpool International Truck Bridge Inc.
The private development group hopes to buy the Canada Southern Railroad Bridge from the Canadian National and Canadian Pacific rail companies, then turn the rail bed into a multilane highway connecting the U.S. and Canada. The project competes with a plan Gandell endorsed as Bridge Commission chief. The commission wants to add two truck lanes to a railway line atop the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge, which runs parallel to and north of the Canada Southern bridge.
"It's a very analogous proposal - the main difference just being a different bridge," Gandell told the Niagara Gazette.
Both plans aim to alleviate lengthy delays truckers experience at the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge and the Peace Bridge. The private proposal has the backing of the Canadian International Brotherhood of Teamsters, local 879, a union that represents nearly 4,000 members in Ontario.