Tagged: Ambassador Bridge

We haven’t heard much about the great Detroit River bridge debate since the November election. That’s when Michigan voters overwhelmingly rejected Ambassador Bridge owner Matty Moroun’s attempt to amend the state constitution to preserve his monopoly.

Earlier last year, Governor Rick Snyder bypassed the Michigan legislature and used a little-known  provision of the constitution to sign an agreement with Canada allowing for a New International Trade Crossing to be built south of the existing bridge.

The Ambassador Bridge is currently the only way heavy freight can be moved across the river, at least between Port Huron and Buffalo. The governor and virtually all business interests agree that a backup is essential.

So why aren’t shovels in the ground? Well, the short answer is bureaucracy.

DETROIT (AP) - A judge in Detroit has ordered the owners of the Ambassador Bridge to reimburse the state Department of Transportation $4.5 million for work done on a freeway-to-bridge project.

The Detroit Free Press reports Monday that Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Prentis Edwards made the order last week.

Edwards told bridge owner Manuel Moroun in 2010 to rebuild a ramp. Moroun was jailed earlier this year when the work was not done.

DETROIT (AP) - Gov. Rick Snyder is returning to Canada to discuss plans for a second bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, nearly six months after signing the deal to build the Canadian-financed span.

The Republican governor will talk in Toronto on Monday about the New International Trade Crossing. He's there to speak at a conference on public-private partnerships and announce a pact with Great Lakes governors on a virtual Canada trade office.

This has been a bad year for Matty Moroun, the billionaire owner of the Ambassador Bridge. In January, he was thrown in jail overnight, for failing to comply with court orders to live up to an agreement he’d signed to finish a road project near his bridge.

A week after the election, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’s administration is switching gears from fighting a ballot proposal that sought to block a new international bridge, to taking further steps to build the New International Trade Crossing bridge.

Governor Snyder's office and top Canadian officials are getting more information out about the proposed bridge between Detroit and Windsor.