detroit-windsor

A proposed new Canada-Michigan sponsored toll bridge downriver of the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit continues to lack support in the state legislature. Enabling legislation was rejected today by a key senate committee in which bridge promoters had invested great hopes.

Polling by political consultant Dick Morris shows that public opinion prefers private to government financing of a toll bridge between Detroit Michigan and Windsor Ontario. A sample of 500 Michigan residents got 51.8% support for a privately financed second span to the Ambassador Bridge to 27.6% preferring a "government owned bridge" with 20.6% saying don't know or declining to answer.

Michigan's new governor Rick Snyder (Repub) in a "state of the state" speech to the legislature supported a new toll bridge to Canada, so long as the state is able to avoid taking on new debt. He said: "We must plan now for a new bridge connecting Detroit to Windsor, Ontario."

Dear TOLLROADSnews Editor,

In the past few months many TOLLROADSnews articles have mentioned the low passenger traffic on the Ambassador bridge. Have you ever actually crossed this bridge recently? 

The approach on the US side is extremely complex and poorly signed. Traveling up the ramp to the bridge proper, one is confronted by a badly barricaded ramp to nowhere, again with no good directions.

With a legislative deadline looming May 1, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm announced a surprise Canadian promise of $550m in loans to help cover Michigan's costs since neither private investors nor the state can finance the new Detroit River International Crossing (DRIC) toll bridge.

Detroit International Bridge Co (DIBC) owner and operator of the Detroit to Windsor Ambassador Bridge is seeking bids for replacing the main deck which goes back to 1929. The deck has undergone repeated maintenance and repairs but spokesman Phil Frame say they've decided "it is time to fully replace it."

Michigan DOT has released traffic projections for the proposed new international bridge over the Detroit River, for which it recently issued a request for proposals of interest in a PPP. Major finding of the traffic study led by Wilbur Smith Associates is that the recent dramatic declines in traffic on the crossings justify a 2035 projection about ten percent lower than before.

Detroit's battle of the bridges took a new turn today with the US Government putting on hold the permitting of a new Ambassador bridge between Detroit and Windsor.