Ambassador Bridge Cleared for New Customs Plaza

(Brent Jang — Globe & Mail)

Canadian Border Authority Grants Approval for Facility in Windsor, But Hurdles Remain

The Canada Border Services Agency has approved plans by the Ambassador Bridge for a new customs plaza in Windsor, Ont., even though the move helps a Michigan billionaire who is embroiled in fierce fight against the Canadian government.

Manuel (Matty) Moroun, who wants to build a new crossing next to his 80-year-old Ambassador Bridge over the Detroit River, has satisfied the CBSA that he has the land amassed to allow Canadian customs officers to carry out their duties, according to a 35-page report commissioned by the federal agency.

Mr. Moroun had “submitted an environmental impact statement in December, 2007, proposing a new six-lane replacement bridge immediately adjacent to the west of the Ambassador Bridge,” said the report by consulting firm Arup Canada Inc. But Ottawa required that Mr. Moroun first gain CBSA approval before Transport Canada would review any environmental assessment. Read more here.

Related: Windsor council sued by Ambassador Bridge (Windsor Star)

Bridge Claims Progress in Bid to Build Twin Span

(Dave Battagello — The Windsor Star)

A consultant's report that illustrates how Canada customs can accommodate secondary truck inspection at the foot of the Ambassador Bridge on Windsor's west end advances the bridge's plans to build a twin span, according to the son of owner Matty Moroun.

Canada Border Services Agency retained the consultant about six months ago to develop a master plan after repeated requests by the agency for Moroun to undertake the effort as part of an environmental assessment were ignored.

With the report recently completed, the bridge company has claimed the information is sufficient to get a permit on the twin span on the Canadian side. A condition of future approval includes Moroun being able to move CBSA secondary truck inspection back to the foot of the bridge in Windsor. Read more here.

At Canadian Border, a Bridge to Prosperity

(Jeff Bennett — Wall Street Journal)

Billionaire Businessman Is Expected to Win Key Permit Allowing Him to Build a New Private Toll Span Between Detroit and Ontario

Billionaire businessman Manuel “Matty” Moroun is poised to move a step closer to tightening his control of traffic across the Detroit River, one of the continent’s busiest and most economically vital border crossings.

Mr. Moroun, whose Detroit International Bridge Co. owns the Ambassador Bridge connecting Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, is expected this week to win approval from Canadian customs authorities for a key part of his plan to build a second span over the same stretch of water. By contrast, plans for a competing, publicly owned bridge have stalled amid concerns over the potential cost to taxpayers.

At stake are tens of millions of dollars of annual toll revenue and a critical link in the U.S. auto industry’s supply chain.

Customs authorities’ go-ahead for a new bridge plaza to be developed by Mr. Moroun—including toll booths and customs-inspection buildings—would all but clear the way for his company to seek a final environmental permit from the Canadian transportation department to build the new six-lane bridge, adjacent to the existing one. The permit is one of the few regulatory hurdles remaining before construction can begin. Read more here.

Blue Water Backs Public DRIC Bridge in Windsor

(Today’s Trucking)

The President of the Blue Water Bridge (BWB) linking Sarnia, Ont. and Port Huron, Mich. says he has no problem with a proposed new public-private bridge in nearby Windsor-Detroit.

In a letter to Detroit River International Crossing (DRIC) officials at the Ontario Ministry of Transportation, BWB President and CEO Chuck Chrapko reiterated the crown corporation's support for the DRIC project, adding that the Sarnia-Port Huron border point would be largely unaffected by an additional crossing at the Detroit-Windsor Gateway. Read more here.

Billionaire’s Planned Bridge a Potential Target: Baird

(Brent Jang — Globe & Mail)

Transport Minister – who supports public option – says close proximity to Ambassador Bridge puts both private spans at risk of terrorist attack

In the battle of the bridge, federal Transport Minister John Baird is playing the terrorism card.

Plans by Michigan billionaire Manuel (Matty) Moroun to build a new span next to his Ambassador Bridge would make the continent’s busiest commercial crossing a juicy target for terrorists who could block billions of dollars in Canada-U.S. trade for months, Mr. Baird says.

Mr. Moroun, 82, wants to build a new Detroit-Windsor span only 30 metres west of the Ambassador Bridge, but Ottawa is supporting a rival proposal for a new government-backed crossing three kilometres down the Detroit River.

Mr. Baird said if Mr. Moroun succeeds in adding a new span so close to his privately owned Ambassador Bridge, police will face a major security threat. “If those bridges ever went down, the Ontario and Michigan economies within a matter of days would be on their knees,” the minister said in an interview Monday. Read more here.

Related information from Transport Canada:

• Minister Issues Statement Regarding a New Windsor-Detroit Crossing

• Fact Sheet – Detroit River International Crossing

Canada Offers $550 Million Toward New Bridge

(Journal of Commerce Online – Courtney Tower)

Additional funding for Detroit River International Crossing

Canada offered the state of Michigan up to $550 million as a sweetener to get the legislature to give final approval to the building of a controversial new bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario. The Canadian government is willing to increase its share of the cost of the proposed Detroit River International Crossing by that amount, Federal Transport Minister John Baird said Thursday.

The total cost of the project is expected to be $5.3 billion, by far the largest part on the Canadian side because it will cost more than $1 billion to build an extensive new approach road through Windsor. The approach would be partly underground to buffer noise for residents and would replace the present route, which follows city streets past 16 stoplights.

Michigan Governor Granholm went before the state House of Representatives Transportation Committee to read into the record a letter from Baird offering the additional $550 million to bankroll Michigan’s costs of the project.

Baird in Ottawa said Canada “is committed to build a new bridge crossing at the Windsor-Detroit border, and this funding commitment is another step we are taking to accelerate the start of its construction.” The “increased financial participation would be for project components in Michigan, and will be repaid to Canada over time,” the Canadian government said. Baird told reporters the repaying over time would be through tolls collected.

Read more here and here.

Business, Political, Labor Leaders Support New Detroit River Bridge

(Bill Shea — Crain’s Detroit Business)

A group of state and local political, labor and business leaders gathered this morning [Friday] to express their solidarity for a new public Detroit River bridge, and to lobby for passage of legislation that they call the final hurdle to its creation.

Specifically, the group that included Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson and Canadian Ambassador Gary Doer advocated for passage of HB 4961, which would allow Michigan to enter into public-private partnership for its portion of the $5.3 billion Detroit River International Crossing project.

The bill is in the House Transportation Committee and is expected to be taken up this month, DRIC’s backers said in a statement today. If the bill is passed, work on the crossing could begin this year. […]

Backers say the bridge is needed to create 10,000 Michigan construction jobs over five years and 25,000 additional full-time, permanent Michigan jobs created or retained once the bridge is built. It’s also said to be needed to bolster trade capacity and to provide redundancy in case of accident or terrorist attack on the current border infrastructure.

Opponents, who include Ambassador Bridge owner Manuel Moroun and a bloc of state Legislators led by Sen. Alan Cropsey, R-DeWitt, say the new bridge is unneeded because border traffic has declined since 1999.

DRIC is a joint effort by the Michigan Department of Transportation, Transport Canada, Ontario’s Transportation Ministry and the U.S. Federal Highway Administration, and it would link Detroit’s Delray neighborhood and Windsor’s Brighton Beach area with a new bridge to connect I-75 and Highway 401.

It’s expected to take 48 to 52 months to finish and the entire project has a $5.3 billion price tag, with the bridge itself at up to $1 billion. The remainder would be highway, ramp and plaza work, including the Windsor-Essex Parkway that is separate from DRIC and is purely a Canadian effort. Read more here.

Work on U.S. Customs Starts April 12

(Dave Battagello — Windsor Star)

Customs plaza improvements on the U.S. side of the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel are scheduled to begin April 12.

The multimillion-dollar construction work will last several months and includes two phases -- the first to add another inspection booth, plus modifications to lanes 1 and 2. That work should be completed by June. A second phase will see creation of a bus processing area, expansion of the secondary inspection plaza and improvements to the U.S. customs office space. Read more here.

Obama Backs DRIC, Says Ambassador

(Windsor Star – Chris Vander Doelen)

The Obama administration supports construction of the proposed DRIC bridge over the Detroit River but the border here will never again be as easy to cross as it once was, says the new U.S. ambassador to Canada. With the DRIC project now the only bridge-crossing application still standing for U.S. regulatory approval after the Ambassador Bridge’s disqualification, “my government supports the DRIC,” said David Jacobson. “We think it’s a good thing.

“We believe there is probably demand for both” crossings, Jacobson said in an interview Tuesday, prior to delivering the annual Herb Gray lecture at the University of Windsor. “But certainly there is enough for the DRIC.”

Jacobson, a lawyer and Democratic party organizer, was appointed the U.S.’s 22nd ambassador to Canada by President Barack Obama six months ago – a posting he describes as his “dream job.” Fixing the Windsor-Detroit border will be part of that job, but it “is going to take time,” Jacobson warned. “We’ll have to be patient.” Read more here.

This Secretive Billionaire Family Owns the Ambassador Bridge

(Mitch Potter — Toronto Star)

The Moroun family seldom steps out of the shadows to show itself to the world. They may be billionaires. They may own the most important bridge Canada has ever known. But they are just shy that way.

Yet when the local media takes to calling you “crabgrass,” when Forbes magazine slams you as “the troll under the bridge,” when you are on the verge of all-out war with Ottawa, exceptions must be made.

So here we are, inside the American family’s astonishingly private corporate headquarters in suburban Detroit, with Matthew Moroun sitting across the table like the proverbial deer in the headlights.

To call the conversation exclusive doesn’t quite do it justice. At 37, the younger Moroun is in the process of taking over the company reins from his rags-to-riches father, 83-year-old Manuel “Matty” Moroun. The heir apparent has never given an interview. Until now. Read more here.

Ottawa Mulls Buying Windsor-Detroit Ambassador Bridge

(John Ivison/Dave Battagello, Canwest News Service)

Stephen Harper has instructed his ministers to explore the prospect of buying the Windsor-Detroit bridge — the busiest international border crossing in North America — from its American owner.

The Ambassador Bridge is owned by billionaire Manuel “Matty” Moroun and carries one quarter of all merchandise trade between Canada and the United States.

Lawrence Cannon, the Foreign Minister, said buying the bridge from the private sector is one option being examined. “My understanding is that the file is progressing and there are options being looked at,” he said.

He added the government’s first choice would be to pursue development of a new publicly owned bridge, the Detroit River International Crossing, down river from the Ambassador Bridge. But he said that deal is complicated by the involvement of state governments in the United States. “No decision has been taken on what specific option to take,” he said. Read more here.

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.

Inspectors Urged Repairs for Key U.S.-Canada Bridge

(Reuters – Bernie Woodall)

An 80-year-old vehicular bridge that handles a fourth of U.S.-Canada trade has needed major repairs, including steps to shore up its main cables and deck, according to a 2007 safety report released on Thursday.

The once-secret report provided the first glimpse into the safety of the privately owned Ambassador Bridge, the busiest border crossing in North America. It was made public after a court battle to block its release and amid a debate on both sides of the border on plans to build an alternative span.

The engineering report commissioned by The Detroit International Bridge company, the privately held firm that owns the bridge, concluded that the suspension span was in "fair" condition and safe for vehicle traffic. Read more here.

New Bridge Called a ‘Boondoggle’

(Craig Pearson — The Windsor Star)

Michigan hasn’t purchased one acre of land

The Canadian government is wasting its money acquiring land for a new bridge across the Detroit River because the costly project will never go ahead, a U.S. lawmaker said Monday.

Ottawa has so far paid $34 million to the City of Windsor for 94 acres of land -- and is negotiating with 10 other property owners for a total of 202 acres. Michigan, however, not only has yet to purchase a single acre, but has not yet even given approval to buy any land, said Bill Shreck, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Transportation.

“This isn’t a done deal at all,” said Senate Majority Floor Leader Alan Cropsey, a Republican and the leading opponent of the taxpayer-funded bridge. “If Canadian taxpayers want to blow money on purchasing land, that’s their prerogative. We blew money ($2 million) on a useless bridge study here in Michigan. Read more here.

Related: Bridge plan proceeding, Duncan says (Windsor Star)

Kenny Opposes Twinning Bridge

(Chris Thompson — The Windsor Star)

Senators assessing security issues

The twinning of the Ambassador Bridge isn’t needed, the chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on National Security and Defence said during a whirlwind tour of the bridge’s Canadian security operation Thursday.

“I don’t think it should be at this location,” said Liberal Senator Colin Kenny, who toured the bridge plaza along with committee deputy chairwoman Conservative Senator Pamela Wallin.

“The idea of twinning this facility makes no sense because if this facility went down, you’d lose both of them,” he said.

“So, let’s have it at another location.” Read more here.

Feds Say Bridge Treated Fairly

(The Windsor Star – Dave Battagello)

The Canadian government has assured Michigan lawmakers that Canada is committed to building another border crossing as quickly as possible, despite a bid by the Ambassador Bridge to derail the process.

Michael Wilson, Canada’s Ambassador to the United States, said in a letter to state leaders that bridge allegations of unfair treatment surrounding its twin span proposal are unfounded. Wilson denied complaints by bridge officials that the Canadian government has delayed the twin span’s environmental assessment and said the view that the government-sponsored Detroit River International Crossing bridge is costly and not needed are misguided.

Wilson’s three-page letter was addressed to the speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives and Senate majority leader. A copy was also issued to Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm.

Wilson said the bridge twinning was ruled out by DRIC because of negative environmental impacts in Windsor, lack of system redundancy and inadequate space for a border inspection plaza in Windsor. “In Canada, the bridge company does not have any of the approvals necessary to proceed with construction,” Wilson said. Read more here.

Ambassador Bridge Truck Crossings Plummet

(Today’s Trucking)

If this keeps up, there might not be a reason for a second bridge at the Windsor-Detroit Gateway after all.

Freight traffic over the world’s busiest border crossing declined by nearly 500,000 trucks through November from 2007.

According to reports, truck traffic on the Ambassador Bridge dropped 14.9 percent to 2.7 million from 3.2 million last year.

The stats were compiled by the Public Border Operators Association, which monitors crossings between Michigan and New York with the province of Ontario.

The Ambassador is forging ahead with a twin span between Windsor and Detroit. At the same time governments on both sides of the border are in the final stages of planning a new bridge abut 3 km downriver of the Ambassador.

The declining trend has been similar at other major Ontario-U.S. border crossings.

The second-busiest crossing, the Blue Water Bridge at Sarnia-Port Huron, Mich. saw traffic total 1,475,979 trucks through November, off 1.75 percent.

At the Peace Bridge between Buffalo and Fort Erie, Ont., declined by 1.78 percent.

Planners of New U.S.-Canada Bridge Eye Legal Fight

(Journal of Commerce Online – Courtney Tower)

The owners of the busiest commercial bridge crossing linking the United States and Canada say they’ll sue if their plan for a new span is not approved by government authorities.

Following a rejection by the Michigan legislature, Dan Stamper, president of Detroit International Bridge Co., owner of the Ambassador Bridge, said in an interview that with or without approvals from U.S. and Canadian officials, he would move ahead with plans to construct a new, six-lane twin span.

“We are going to build that bridge,” he said.

If Washington and Ottawa push ahead with their own plans for a new publicly-owned bridge two miles from the Ambassador, Stamper promised to sue to block the project.

New bridges are needed to ease congestion and delays at the 80-year old Ambassador, a critical link for nearly US$75 billion in U.S. exports and $63 billion in imports moving in the Detroit-Windsor, Ont. corridor each year, or 25% of an annual total $562 billion in U.S.-Canada trade.

A long stand-off in the Michigan legislature ended last week with the failure of a Republican-led attempt to cut off funding for preparatory work for a publicly-owned Detroit River International Crossing, in the making since 2004. That work now can proceed. Read the complete article.

Politics Builds a Border Roadblock

(Detroit Free Press – Steve Tobocman)

Steve Tobocman of Detroit represents the 12th District in the Michigan House and is the majority floor leader.

Michigan’s economic recovery is not just one of the top issues facing our state; it’s the only issue. The Detroit-Windsor international trade route represents one of our state’s most important assets in growing our economy. With more than $160 billion in annual cross-border trade, the Michigan-Ontario connection is twice as valuable as all U.S. exports to Japan. No other land border in the United States is even half as valuable as Detroit-Windsor.

When it comes to fighting for special interests and political donors, however, U.S. Reps. Joe Knollenberg, R-Bloomfield Township, and Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Detroit, have put helping their friends and donors at the Ambassador Bridge ahead of growing the Michigan economy.

On July 13, 2007; April 21, 2008; and May 30, 2008, the Kilpatrick-Knollenberg duo weighed in with letters to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters on the Detroit River International Crossing (DRIC) study without checking in with southeast Michigan’s businesses and job producers.

In short, the Kilpatrick-Knollenberg team has joined forces to ensure that the Ambassador Bridge’s monopoly on Detroit-Windsor international trade’s truck traffic is continued. Reps. Kilpatrick and Knollenberg appear committed to protecting this monopoly no matter how much it hurts job growth in Michigan.

Given the critical nature of international border trade, it is shocking that the July 2007 Kilpatrick-Knollenberg letter would demand that Secretary Peters direct the Federal Highway Administration and the Michigan Department of Transportation “to cease participation in the DRIC (study),” while the April and May 2008 joint letters would seek a six-month delay in the study.

The Michigan-Canadian border is our nation’s and continent’s most important international trade infrastructure asset. That is why every single U.S. private sector advocacy organization that has weighed in on the matter, except for the Ambassador Bridge, supports completing the DRIC study and moving forward with a plan to ensure Michigan has adequate capacity to facilitate growing international trade and to meet the homeland security needs of a post-9/11 world.

In fact, according to Sen. Michael Fortier, Canada’s Minister for International Trade, the DRIC study represents the most important infrastructure investment for economic development in Canada.

It could be the isolation of working inside the Beltway that is affecting Knollenberg and Kilpatrick. Or it could be the thousands of dollars of personal political donations they have received from executives of the privately owned Ambassador Bridge. But Knollenberg and Cheeks-Kilpatrick forgot to ask the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce, Automation Alley, Ford, Chrysler, General Motors, the United Auto Workers, the Michigan Department of Transportation, the Michigan Manufacturing Association, the Automotive Alliance or, even, Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, Michigan’s most ardent private sector business advocate, for their thoughts on the matter.

Let’s hope that Knollenberg and Kilpatrick use this current in-district work period to talk to the job makers in southeast Michigan and get the straight story on the DRIC.

Canada and the U.S. Sign Detroit-Windsor Memorandum of Cooperation

(Transport Canada)

Speaking in Washington, D.C., the Honourable Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, and United States Secretary of Transportation, Mary E. Peters, announced that the two countries have signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) to maintain a high priority on the development of enhanced capacity of the border-crossing infrastructure in the Detroit-Windsor region.

The MOC follows the direction given at the North American Leaders’ Summit on August 21, 2007, in Montebello, Quebec, Canada by the Prime Minister of Canada and the President of the United States.

“Canada is experiencing the second-largest period of economic expansion in Canadian history. That is why the Government of Canada is committed to developing additional border capacity along the Windsor-Detroit corridor,” said Minister Cannon. “It is a crucial support to the continued growth of the economies of Canada and the United States.”

Complete press release, including a backgrounder on the Detroit River International Crossing project available here.