BUFFALO, N.Y. - A long-debated proposal to build a new span to replace Buffalo's aging Peace Bridge has been put on hold.
Officials with the Peace Bridge Authority announced Thursday that plans now call for a new, smaller inspection plaza on Buffalo's end of the span that links New York and Fort Erie, Ontario.
The new plan will require removing only a few vacant houses in a Buffalo neighbourhood near the bridge's eastern end, as opposed to demolishing dozens of homes as called for in a previous proposal.
Many New York officials over the past decade had supported building a new bridge next to the existing span.
The plaza expansion project is aimed at alleviating some of the traffic backups on the 84-year-old bridge, one of the nation's busiest crossings along the northern border.
