Detroit Bridge Wars

[thenetwork]

What is with the $0.25-$0.50 cent difference in tolls depending on which way you cross?  When I used to cross between Detroit & Windsor back in the day, the only difference in tolls was whether you were paying in US or Canadian funds. 

Now that the Canadian/US dollar rates of exchange is pretty much even-steven nowadays, I just don't see why they just don't charge one toll price per vehicle class -- $CDN, $US or combination thereof -- or just charge the larger amount in one direction, and make it 'free' in the other, like the Peace Bridge in Buffalo/Ft. Erie

[Brandon]

^^ There is a combination of traffic that crosses at Detroit-Windsor.  Some is commuter traffic for which the free one way, toll the other would work.  Other traffic is just going straight through and will not come back via this route.  In addition, you have two different entities owning the Bridge and the Tunnel, with a third owning the Blue Water Bridge up in Port Huron.

[thenetwork]

I didn't mean to say that all 3 crossings needed to be the same price -- What I'm saying that I find it odd that the current toll on a SINGLE bridge or tunnel is one price one way and another price the other, regardless of what currency(ies) you use. 

And the free one way/pay toll the other isn't a bad option -- if you compare the number of people only crossing in the FREE direction vs. the TOLL direction the stats would probably balance out anyway, like in the case of the Peace Bridge & the other similar Niagara crossings.

[Brandon]

U.S. slams Ambassador Bridge owners' 'monopoly' claim, moves to dismiss Moroun argument

Moron..er..Mouron is about to be handed his own ass.

In a strongly worded response to Moroun's complaint against several federal officials, as well as a partnership between the nations and agencies in Michigan and Ontario to construct a new publicly owned span, federal lawyers slammed the bridge owner's claims as "nothing more than an attempt to rewrite the entire history of the Ambassador Bridge."

The filing said Moroun wants the court "not only to rewrite the Congressional statutes that authorized the construction and operation of the bridge, but to interfere with the United States' and Canada's sovereign powers to establish and maintain border crossings between their two nations."  The filing asks that all the claims be dismissed.

[getemngo]

I didn't mean to say that all 3 crossings needed to be the same price -- What I'm saying that I find it odd that the current toll on a SINGLE bridge or tunnel is one price one way and another price the other, regardless of what currency(ies) you use. 

That is weird... last time I crossed them, the Blue Water Bridge, International Bridge (Sault Ste Marie), and Peace Bridge all had same price whether you paid in U.S. or Canadian.

[vdeane]

I didn't mean to say that all 3 crossings needed to be the same price -- What I'm saying that I find it odd that the current toll on a SINGLE bridge or tunnel is one price one way and another price the other, regardless of what currency(ies) you use. 

That is weird... last time I crossed them, the Blue Water Bridge, International Bridge (Sault Ste Marie), and Peace Bridge all had same price whether you paid in U.S. or Canadian.

I don't think this is about currencies or about different bridges.  It's about whether you're traveling eastbound or westbound.

[ibagli]

It looks like the Blue Water Bridge tolls are set by different authorities. Eastbound tolls are set by MDOT and westbound tolls are set by the bridge authority in Canada.

[Brandon]

I think I smell some serious bullshit.

Moroun lawyer says Canada is trying to destroy Ambassador Bridge business

A lawyer for Ambassador Bridge owner Manuel (Matty) Moroun claims the Canadian government is trying to run the historic Detroit River span out of business and that it would have been "madness"  for the original owners to build it if they had believed the U.S. or Canada would later try to strip them of their exclusive franchise.

"This is not just commercial activity: It is predatory activity, specifically designed to destroy (Moroun's) business,"  attorney Hamish P.M. Hume argued in a filing late last week in U.S. District Court in Washington.

[triplemultiplex]

I think I can smell it too.

It would be madness to think that a single, four lane bridge with no real freeway connections would be adequate to handle the traffic over the Detroit River 100 years after the construction of the Ama$$ador.
What a douche.

This is what happens when for-profit corporations own critical transportation infrastructure.  I hope you are taking notes, Indiana.  This bullshit is you in a decade or two.

Michigan should totally eminent domain that goddamn bridge and shut this asshat up once and for all.

[NE2]

a single, four lane bridge with no real freeway connections

Didn't they just connect it to I-75?

[triplemultiplex]

a single, four lane bridge with no real freeway connections

Didn't they just connect it to I-75?

Eh, maybe technically...

[Brandon]

a single, four lane bridge with no real freeway connections

Didn't they just connect it to I-75?

Yes, and I-96; however, it is on city streets on the Windsor side.

[JREwing78]

IIRC, Moroun has made no serious attempt to propose a replacement or 2nd crossing that addresses the desire of Canada to route the cross-border traffic off city streets in Windsor. He's trying to cram a 2nd crossing in the same spot, something that the Canadians have consistently stated is a non-starter.

If Moroun wanted to maintain his hold on Detroit-Windsor border crossings, he should've played ball when he had the chance.

[The Great Zo]

It's pretty likely that once the new bridge is completed in ~2020, Windsor will end truck access to the Ambassador. That would be the final and ultimate blow to Moroun's border-crossing standoff, though there's no guarantees he'll even be around to see it.

[JREwing78]

Moroun's not done yet.

Did state's Detroit EM team use its clout to stymie Moroun bridge?
http://www.freep.com/article/20140502/NEWS06/305020016/ambassador-bridge-NITC-injunction-moroun

[The Great Zo]

The final permit for the new bridge has been granted by the US Coast Guard. This follows immediately on the heels of Matty Moroun losing a federal court case to stop the Coast Guard permit from being issued.

New international bridge project in Detroit wins final permit from Coast Guard

WASHINGTON – Wasting no time after a judge cleared the way, the Coast Guard issued the last permit needed for construction of a new, government-owned international bridge from Detroit to Windsor that could put thousands of people to work in southeast Michigan and revitalize the trade corridor with Canada.

Word of the Coast Guard permit came today, even though the agency apparently issued the permit as early as Friday, the same day a federal judge overruled an objection from owners of the rival Ambassador Bridge.

While several issues still need to be worked out, the permit is a key step forward. Property on both sides of the border still must be acquired, and funding for a new customs plaza on the U.S. side still must be addressed by Congress or Canada.

"We have all the permits in place now,"  Gary Doer, Canada's ambassador to the U.S., told the Free Press. "Every time we run into a speed bump on this bridge, we've found a way to get around the obstacle. We see this as very good news today."

[Brandon]

New authority to oversee Detroit-Windsor bridge

A six-member international authority will oversee the construction of a public bridge between Detroit and Windsor and a CEO was appointed to lead the bridge authority, officials announced Wednesday.

The appointments to the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority and the International Authority were announced by Gov. Rick Snyder and Canada's Transport Minister, Lisa Raitt, during a news conference about the New International Trade Crossing at the Canadian Club Heritage Centre in Windsor.

Check out the artist's renderings of the new bridge.

[Revive 755]

^ Some reason the design was changed?  Or does the artist have his/her types of bridges mixed up?

[theline]

Slide 4 labels the bridge as "Proposed NITC Bridge (Suspension Bridge Example)." That implies that the type of bridge was undetermined at the time of the rendering.

[JREwing78]

"I would say I am 100% sure the bridge gets built,"  Carmine Palombo, deputy executive director of the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments, told the Free Press. "What I am not sure about is the when."

Detroit Free Press: Can anything stop construction of the new bridge to Windsor?
http://www.freep.com/article/20140818/BUSINESS06/308180006/NITC-bridge-Windsor-Snyder-Moroun

[vdeane]

Without a Customs inspection plaza, the new bridge wouldn't be allowed to carry any traffic.

I see no reason why the lack of a US customs plaza would prevent Canada-bound traffic from using the bridge.  It wouldn't be the only one-way border crossing.

[JREwing78]

On Friday, Moroun associate Dan Stamper wrote a letter to the City Council and mayor's office offering $1.5 million for the land plus an additional $1 million for redevelopment of the community.

"We offer to build, not demolish,"  Stamper wrote in the letter. "Instead of destroying neighborhoods, they should be rebuilt."

Given Moroun's track record of not redeveloping Detroit properties (Michigan Central Station, for example), it's comical that anyone on the City Council is actually entertaining the idea. Emergency manager Kevyn Orr thankfully sees this nonsense for what it is.

Moroun offers Detroit $1.1M more than Michigan for land for new bridge
http://www.freep.com/article/20140908/NEWS01/309080170/Ambassador-Bridge-owner-Canada-Matty-Moroun

[JREwing78]

"Politicians and governments in Canada and the United States have let their seething anger at the obstreperous Moroun family eclipse the fact the bridge, by any objective standard, needs to be replaced," the publication wrote.

Let Morouns build their new bridge? Some say why not?
http://www.freep.com/story/money/business/michigan/2015/07/24/windsor-detroit--bridge-ambassador-moroun-traffic-gallagher/30614601/

[vdeane]

There are much older bridges in good condition, so obviously he hasn't been maintaining it properly... and if he can't maintain the bridge he has, why should he be trusted to build a new one?

Besides that, no objection as long as he does this LEGALLY (no unilaterally just doing it like he tried the last time) and tears down the old bridge when done.  It should be a replacement, not a twinning.

[noelbotevera]

Or, we can be a little sneaky here....why not let Michigan and Ontario build a crossing at Goderich, Ontario to White Rock/Forestville, Michigan. Its a crossing between Port Huron and Sault Ste. Marie, taking traffic out of Detroit, Detroit can be rebuilt, then we're all happy. The highways that it would connect would be M-25 to ON 8/ON 21. Boom.