DETROIT – So whatever happened to the new Gordie Howe International Bridge that was supposedly going to rise across the Detroit River? Are they really building it? When will it be done?
“We are indeed, and we are on schedule,” said Mark Butler, the director of communications for the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority. “There’s a lot of work going on that you can’t see, but you can see the first five piers rising.”
By piers, he meant the actual footings to support the $4 billion bridge, which is scheduled to open in 2024, after years of struggle in which Ambassador Bridge owner Manuel “Matty “ Moroun spent tens of millions trying to present a new bridge from being built.
He certainly delayed it, maximizing his profits in the meantime; when former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder announced in 2011 that he had found a way to reach an agreement with Canada, there was talk of a new bridge being ready as early as 2016. That didn’t happen.
But a new span is finally becoming reality — which is more important than many people know. “I want to remind everyone that the commercial traffic that crosses the border at Windsor-Detroit represents about 25 percent of the bilateral trade between the United States and Canada,” Butler said.
The vast majority of that — more than $1.5 billion a week — is heavy industrial and manufacturing components, mainly for the auto industry, that travel back and forth over the Ambassador Bridge.
They cannot go through the Detroit-Windsor tunnel and there is no other cost-effective way to move them. And the Ambassador Bridge is increasingly problematic. Completed in 1930, it was not designed to last this long, or for today’s heavy tractor-trailer trucks.
Large chunks of concrete have fallen from the bridge in recent years. The bridge is also not in the best location; trucks on the Canadian side have to endure a gauntlet of more than a dozen traffic signals before reaching Highway 401, Ontario’s main expressway.
The Gordie Howe bridge, on the other hand, is being designed to seamlessly connect I-75 in Michigan with Highway 401.
The new span, Butler said, will also be an elegant, state-of-the art cable suspension bridge with pedestrian and bike lanes and state-of-the art customs plazas. As work goes on, those designing it even plan to build observation decks where the public can watch construction, bridge authorities said.
There also will be thousands of jobs being created in construction and other fields, some of which are already available. “If you are interested, go to www.Gordiehoweinternationalbridge.com and click on opportunities,” he added.
Most of the jobs are through Bridging North America, the private sector entity building the bridge, which will be jointly owned and operated by both countries after it is completed.
Windsor, the Canadian city where both bridges “land,” was able to speedily assemble all the property needed for the bridge — “one of the strengths of our system,” said Brian Masse, the newly reelected member of the Canadian Parliament whose district includes the bridge. Detroit took longer, in part because more than 600 privately owned parcels had to be purchased, and Ambassador Bridge owner Moroun owned some of them.
Now, the bridge authority says it has assembled all but a handful of the properties needed, is confident of acquiring the rest, and meanwhile, “we can work around the ones still in private hands during this stage of construction,” Butler said.
What’s more of a mystery is whether Matty Moroun will in fact build a new bridge next to the Ambassador Bridge, something he has repeatedly pledged to do, initially in an attempt to keep the Gordie Howe from being built. In September, 2017 Canada issued a permit for him to build a new bridge, subject to many conditions.
Those include tearing the old bridge down at his expense after a new one is built, and spending millions to relocate buildings, offices and churches on the Canadian side.
Masse, the Member of Parliament who represents the area, wants even more conditions imposed on the Ambassador Bridge company. “They need to provide a community benefits package for the people who live in that neighborhood. And we need to hold the Ambassador Bridge more accountable,” for the way it operates.
There may be a greater chance of that happening after last month’s Canadian elections. While the Liberal Party was returned to power, they are now a minority and likely will need to form a coalition with Mr. Masse’s New Democratic Party to stay in power.
Gregg Ward, who owns and operates the Detroit-Windsor truck ferry, is skeptical. “He (Moroun) has testified in court that the Gordie Howe bridge would take 75 percent of his freight business. Would building a second bridge make sense?”
The Moroun family does own a vast trucking business – but logistically, the new bridge is apt to be far more convenient for any truck going further than downtown Windsor. There’s another consideration, too. Though few openly talk about it, even if Matty Moroun were to start a new bridge, he is 92, and there’s no guarantee he would live to see it finished.
What his only son, Matthew Moroun, now 45, will do when he inherits his father’s business is a complete mystery.
So the answer is, yes, Detroit will have a new bridge, far better than the Ambassador, though it is nearly five years away. The only question is why a single billionaire as allowed to delay it so long.
