Tagged: bridge to canada

The New International Trade Crossing has taken a big step closer to becoming reality. 

Recently, the U.S. State Department approved the project which will allow the creation of a second span across the Detroit River from Detroit to Windsor.

The residents, business owners, and civic leaders in the Delray neighborhood have been watching the progress of this project very closely.

Delray is where the bridge would be built - where traffic would flow - and where life will change.

Will the bridge bring good things to the southwest Detroit neighborhood and its residents, or will their quality of life be sacrificed for the economic benefits to Michigan?

Simone Sagovac is with the Southwest Detroit Community Benefits Coalition. Today, she told us how the new bridge will affect Delray residents and whether the two can exist.

Listen to the full interview above.

A newly awarded presidential permit will allow Michigan to wrap up an agreement with Canada to build a new international bridge. The bridge will connect Detroit and Windsor-Ontario. Michigan, U.S. and Canadian officials cheered the news today. 

Delray is a neighborhood in southwest Detroit.  People who live here are surrounded by heavy industry. A proposed new bridge to Canada is planned to land in the Delray neighborhood.  The construction could change how the neighborhood looks.  It’s estimated that thousands more trucks will pass by the neighborhood every day.

When we visited one recent summer evening, a bunch of kids were climbing on a playground. Two of them were playing tag, laughing and running themselves breathless.

But just past the red and yellow playground are two tall smoke stacks. If you look closely, you can see a green haze creeping out of them.

Simone Sagovac is with Southwest Detroit Environmental Vision. The non-profit group has been working to clean up southwest Detroit for 20 years.

“People who come to visit here from the EPA, from around the country, say that it's one of the worst places they've ever been to.”

Lt. Gov. Brian Calley says a ballot proposal to require the public to vote on a new international bridge in Detroit won’t stop the project. But he says it could put a halt to future infrastructure projects, including a badly needed upgrade to a rail tunnel in Detroit.

Calley says Governor Rick Snyder’s deal with the Canadian government to build a new international bridge in Detroit pre-dates the ballot question. But he says there are other international crossings in Michigan.

“As we look at Sault Sainte Marie, we look at Port Huron, and we look at the rail tunnel where cargo goes back and forth between our nations, there will likely be a need for expanded transportation options all along our border, and all this does is limit that," he said.

The amendment would require a statewide vote to use public resources on an international bridge or tunnel.

The ballot campaign is financed largely by the Ambassador Bridge company, which is trying to stop a competing span. A spokesman says it would not affect the privately owned Detroit rail tunnel, unless tax dollars were used for the upgrade.

Gov. Rick Snyder says last night's bomb-threat that closed the Ambassador bridge for hours provides another reason to build a second bridge.

Last week, when a similar bomb-threat closed down the Detroit-Windsor tunnel, Michigan Radio's Lester Graham had his mind 1.5 miles down river, on the Ambassador Bridge. 

Check out Forbes staff writer Joann Muller's in-depth look at the politics behind this month's bridge deal:

-Via Elaine Ezekiel, Michigan Radio Newsroom