Canada Offers to Pay Michigan's Share For Detroit-Windsor Bridge; Partnership Bill Gets Closer to Publication

Canada has offered to cover Michigan's share of the costs to build the proposed new bridge linking Detroit and Windsor, up to $550 million.

Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm made the announcement during a hearing of the Michigan House of Representatives Transportation Committee in Lansing. The committee was discussing a bill that would give the state the authority to pursue public-private partnerships to finance and build major infrastructure projects and give the state the green light to enter into a joint agreement with Canada to finance, design, construct and operate the Detroit River International Crossing.

David Bradley, president of the Ontario Trucking Association, called Canada's offer "a bold and creative strategy to help remove one of the major stumbling blocks to impeding a decision by Michigan to allow the bridge to be built."

In his testimony, Bradley said the Ambassador Bridge would continue to play a major role but cautioned the legislators that even if the bridge owners were to get the required approvals from the governments on both sides of the border, it would not in his view "fix the problems that have and continue to plague the Detroit-Windsor crossing." It would not, for example, provide the freeway-to-freeway access on both sides of the border.

"You'd still have the 16 stop lights to contend with on the approach to the bridge in Windsor," he said. It would not provide the necessary capacity needed over the long-term to support trade, he said. Building a second Ambassador Bridge would create eight lanes, whereas at Laredo, Texas, the U.S.'s second busiest freight crossing, there are four bridges and 28 lanes. And, from a security perspective he said that "continuing to rely on one bridge would not provide the redundancy needed to ensure that breaches of security would not result in the border being shut down."

The committee approved the bill and recommended its adoption by the full House of Representatives. It could go to the floor of the House as early as next week. At the same time, the bill starts making its way through the Senate process next week, where it may get a rougher ride.