Four-Year Delay Seen for New Detroit Bridge

(Journal of Commerce – Courtney Tower)

Canada approves environmental study but lawsuits delay cross-border span

Canada last week achieved a critical milestone toward building the $3 billion Detroit River International Crossing. But the final opening still faces at least four years of delay by the most hopeful calculation from 2013 to 2017.

Canadian authorities gave their final approval in an exhaustive environmental process which has lasted several years since federal and local governments decided to build a new bridge two miles upriver from the 80-year-old Ambassador Bridge. The same U.S. process ended in approval early this year. The two environmental approvals would normally allow the project to go ahead.

Even four extra years can become more if there are further delays from a huge tangle of lawsuits in U.S. courts or from renewed opposition in the Michigan legislature, where the private owner of the venerable Ambassador Bridge, Manual Moroun, has several supporters. Moroun wants to build his own new span and stop the public DRIC. Read more here.