DETROIT -- A Federal Court dismissed allegations by the Ambassador Bridge Company and the Sierra Club of Canada that the government breached environmental guidelines and other procedures when deciding to build a new public crossing downriver.

The decision means that the Detroit River International Crossing has cleared another hurdle towards starting the bridge project.

The court ruled that Canadian Transit Company and the Sierra Club of Canada's complaints were "without any merit."

The Canadian Transit Company insisted that Transport Canada was "biased" when it rejected the private bridge's proposal to build a twin span rather than constructing a new crossing 3 km southwest.

The court found that the reasoning behind the rejection of the twinned Ambassador – that there was no crossing redundancy in case of a terrorist attack – was a valid decision by Transport Canada.

Meanwhile, the Sierra Club said that Transport Canada breached the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act by purchasing $34 million of land from the City of Windsor before an environmental assessment was completed, and that authorities disregarded a principle under the Act for studying adverse environmental effects against endangered species during the construction.

Both allegations were dismissed.