dispute

The Ambassador Bridge company (DIBC) has released an annotated commentary on a Michigan DOT Question & Answer statement on the long running Gateway Plaza controversy that has generated so much heat in Detroit. This has seen expensive demolitions, demands for more demolitions and rebuilds - all located on the private land of the bridge company.

Top Ambassador Bridge people are due in Wayne County Court Thursday in what is billed locally as a showdown that could see a Judge order some of them to jail for contempt, and/or appoint a receiver to take over the bridge plaza.

Ambassador Bridge company president Dan Stamper tells us this morning: "I believe we are doing everything the Judge has ordered us to do. The work is either done already, or we'll have it done by the Judge's deadline for the work." He said they "didn't agree" that everything that they've been asked to do was needed to fulfil the terms of an agreement with the state DOT over the joint bridge Gateway project, but, regardless, they're doing the work.

Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) is asking for a court order transferring control of the Ambassador Bridge approaches and plaza area to a court-appointed receiver.

Miami Dade Expressway Authority (MDX) and their contractor Electronic Transaction Consultants (ETC) have exchanged harsh words in a dispute over implementation of a back office for their all-electronic toll conversion project.

Rival press conferences were staged Friday in Detroit in efforts by the contestants to sway public opinion and mobilize political support for the two competing concepts for upgrading the leading US-Canada truck crossing - upgrading of the Ambassador Bridge or the construction of a new bridge about two miles (3km) downriver.

Barbara O'Connor, longtime director of business development at the International Bridge Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA) resigned last week after a sharp disagreement with executive director Pat Jones. We have this from third parties. Neither O'Connor nor Jones have responded to requests to talk about it - so far anyway.

We don't know the subject of the disagreement.

The IBTTA website no longer shows her on staff.