US Government refuses to consider new Ambassador Bridge proposal

The Coast Guard, the US Government's designated authority at the Detroit River is refusing to consider an application by the Detroit International Bridge Company (DIBC) to twin their Ambassador bridge, the major toll crossing between Detroit Michigan and Windsor Ontario. Hala Elgaaly administrator for the coast guard's bridge program says in a letter today that the application cannot be considered because the company does not have clear property rights over land needed for the bridge.

Twinning of the bridge with a new wider, modern cable stay span is needed because of the growing cost of maintaining the 81-year old suspension span, and the difficulty of doing this without disrupting traffic. The present span is a tight 4 lanes with no median or shoulders.

Coast Guard approval is needed because the Detroit River is a major shipping channel between the great lakes, and corresponding approvals are also needed from Canadian authorities.

Elgaaly cites that Detroit City Council declarations that the Bridge Company is trespassing on city property plus a recent court victory for the state of Michigan requiring removal of construction by the company.

The Coast Guard official says they support the conclusion that the bridge company is unlikely to be able to gain property rights needed for the new bridge any time soon.

"(T)he Coast Guard accepted the application in June 2006 and continued to process it... because of repeated DIBC assurances that acquisition of property rights was imminent. The Coast Guard has received no credible indication that the property rights issue is any closer to being resolved now than it was over three years ago..."

Elgaaly says that city officials who hold title to property on the US touchdown point for the company's planned parallel span told the US Government they won't convey land to the DIBC.

"(T)hose critical property rights are held by the City of Detroit, not DIBC. The City of Detroit has assured the Coast Guard that they have not, and likely will not, convey those right to DIBC."

The permitting process cannot go forward, the US bridge administrator says, until the company shows it legally controls the needed land.

Canadians also opposed

Canadian authorities also adamantly oppose the bridge company plan to twin the bridge, major consideration being the lack of any quality highway connection for heavy truck traffic between the bridge and the Highway 401 expressway.

The preferred plan of governments on both sides of the itnernational border is to have a private concessionaire build a modern toll bridge at a permitted site 3km, two miles downstream of the Ambassador Bridge where direct connections can be made between Ontario's H401 and Michigan's I-75.  This is known as the Detroit River International Crossing (DRIC) project.

The project is permitted and work is already underway on the Windsor Essex Parkway approach road to the DRIC on the Canadian side.

The existing Ambassador Bridge which opened in 1929 was built under a charter-in-perpetuity, but that charter provides no protection against competition. Meanwhile the bridge company has dissipated local goodwill with a long history of buccaneer behavior - such as disregarding contractual commitments, taking over parkland, and attempting construction without permits.

COMMENT: That record of lawlessness is catching up with the Ambassador Bridge company. A county judge recently ruled that the company illegally built a dutyfree store, a gas station, toll equipment and ramps. The judge ordered a timetable for their removal. Piers also seem to have been built as part of the approach to the new bridge, although the company has no permits.

Logically the new DRIC bridge would take the longdistance truck traffic Ont/H401-MI/I-75 and the Ambassador Bridge would concentrate on local and lighter weight traffic between the Detroit and Windsor areas.

But there is a serious question as to whether the new DRIC is financially viable. Overall traffic across the border Michigan-Ontario over the three crossings (Blue Water Bridge, Ambassador Bridge, Detroit Windsor Tunnel) is down seriously.  

Since the collapse of the big three automakers and post-9/11/2001 border crossing checks were put in place car traffic has about halved to 30k/day and truck traffic is down a third to about 10k/day.

Traffic can come back, but when, and how far, and how fast is very unclear at this point.

That uncertainty will make it difficult to get concessionaires to finance the new bridge fully. If government backing and/or subsidies are required for the new DRIC there's a real question how you justify taxpayer commitments taking traffic away from an unsubsidized competitor.

related article http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/4614

USCG-DIBC letter today:

http://www.tollroadsnews.com/sites/default/files/USCG-BIBC20100302.pdf

USCG-DIBC letter June 2009:

http://www.tollroadsnews.com/sites/default/files/USCG-DIBC20090615.pdf

There is no reaction yet from DIBC but we'll put it here.

TOLLROADSnews 2010-03-02